


Fallen Snow

by Sable (Celeritous)



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, F/M, Faunus Main Character, Gen, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Lie Ren, It's only one oc, Mental Health Issues, Multi, OC-centric, Original Faunus Character, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-Volume 1 (RWBY), Sibling Incest, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, Trans Nora Valkyrie, occasional smut, trans female main character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:28:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27718883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celeritous/pseuds/Sable
Summary: Meet Ruina Nivis, estranged twin sister to the heiress of the SDC, and a faunus trans woman.After a tragedy leaves her the only surviving member of her team, Ruina transfers to the world renowned Beacon Academy. With Jaune expelled for forged transcripts, Ruina takes his place as leader of the team, now named Team RRVN (Raven).Now she must deal with a host of problems as she adjusts to her new life at Beacon. Not the least of which are being on the same team as an old rival, dealing with her PTSD, and meeting the sister who thought she died at birth.
Relationships: Pyrrha Nikos/Original Character(s), Pyrrha Nikos/Original Female Character(s), Weiss Schnee/Original Character(s), Weiss Schnee/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 28





	1. Chapter 1

“I’m sorry, you want me to  _ what _ ?” 

Ruina Nivis was sitting in the office of one Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy. She had just transferred here from her home for the last year, Haven Academy. She’d been warned ahead of time that the only team with an open spot would mean she would have to repeat the first year with them, she was prepared for that. What she wasn’t prepared for was Ozpin telling her she was going to be the leader of said team. 

“You know Miss Nivis, when we go through great trials in life it isn’t uncommon for us to lose faith in others, in systems, even ourselves.” The man with silver hair took a sip from his mug. 

She pleaded with her eyes for him to stop right there. 

“However I believe that these trials can ultimately lead to growth,  _ if _ we are put in a position to learn from them and make use of that experience.”

Her fox-like ears flattened as she was tried in vain to push away the memories of the train. She didn’t want to think about that, not right now, not ever. She focused on the ticking of the clock in Ozpin’s office, which was itself a sort of clock tower. She tried to count all the gears she could see through the clear floors and walls. It helped and eventually she managed to look back up at her new headmaster. 

“Ruina, you are by  _ far _ the best choice to lead this team. Please, give yourself a chance.” 

“Professor, it’s just …Okay, I know I’m a good tactician, but all this team morale and being responsible for others business- it doesn’t sound like me.” Besides, if she had to be responsible for others then she’d have to hold them to her standards, and that wasn’t something many people were up for. 

“You forget that this is a first year team. Very few team leaders are properly prepared for all aspects of leadership, that is why we have leadership courses.” He adjusted his tiny glasses before continuing, “All you need is the spark of potential and your own will to better yourself and others,  _ we _ will provide you with the rest.” 

Well that made sense, of course they wouldn’t expect every leader to be a natural. She was good at classes, she could probably learn what she needed to do the job. Was she really considering this? Well it wasn’t like she had another option. None of the other Huntsman Academies had any team openings right now and they had passed the time for initiation, so she couldn’t just start over anywhere. Beacon was her only choice if she wanted to continue her life’s goal of becoming a huntress. 

“...Okay.” She finally responded. 

“An excellent choice, Miss Nivis. Now if you’ll stand to the side of the door there I’ll have your new team brought in.” 

Ruina nodded and got up from her chair. She walked over to where the professor had indicated. From this position if her new team didn’t look directly to their sides upon entering they would likely not see her. It seemed Professor Ozpin had a flare for the dramatic, trying to do a big reveal. She supposed that ‘dramatic’ fit the man and his academy quite well. Beacon’s tower was simultaneously the tallest building in Vale, the primary CCTS tower for all of Remnant, and his office. Situated in the middle of the Beacon Academy grounds, which were certainly much more grand than Haven. Yeah, dramatic fit. 

The soft ping of the elevator arriving brought her attention to the doors which were sliding open. From those doors strode three teenagers dressed in what she assumed was the Beacon Academy uniform. A black suit with gold trim for what looked to be the one boy, and a black blazer trimmed in gold over a pleated red plaid skirt for what appeared to be two girls. 

She barely managed to catch a strand of pink in the boy’s otherwise shaggy black hair, it was nice to see someone who wanted to express themselves a bit. The shorter of the two girls had orange red hair and was actually fairly short, probably about her height at 5’ flat. She was cute and had a certain presence to her that made her seem larger than she was. The taller of the two girls was of course also  _ quite  _ tall, and recognizable. Most people would recognize Pyrrha Nikos on sight from all of her televised appearances or perhaps from her image plastered on products of any number of her numerous sponsors. Ruina, however, had reason to recognize the girl on a personal basis. 

How had she forgotten that Pyrrha was dead set on attending Beacon? That was the whole reason that Ruina had been able to get into Haven a year early. She should have remembered that she would see her old rival at Beacon, though she never would have expected to end up on the same team. Looking closer at Pyrrha though there was something about her that was off. 

She looked rattled. 

“Students, thank you for joining me.” The headmaster said formally. 

“Professor,” Pyrrha responded, “...are you sure there’s nothing that can be done for Jaune? He’s worked so hard this semester and he’s come so far from where he started.” The other members of the team stood solidly with her, backing her up with their presence alone. 

“I’m sorry Miss Nikos, I’m afraid my hands are tied. I hope you can understand that I too am loath to lose a student with so much potential as Mr. Arc.” 

The two girls of the team wilted at the headmaster’s response. The boy rested a hand on the shorter girl’s shoulder for comfort. The team must be pretty tight knit, hopefully that didn’t make things too awkward. Not that things could get much more awkward than being on the same team as Pyrrha. 

“Now, we must trust that Mr. Arc will find his own way while we move forward on ours. To that end I would like to introduce you to your new teammate and leader, Ruina Nivis.” Ozpin gestured behind them and directly at her. “Together you will be Team Raven.” 

Ruina grinned at the wide eyes of Pyrrha as they all turned to look at her.

“Hey Nikos, fancy meeting you here.” She started. 

“Ohmygosh she’s so  _ cuuute! _ ” The orange haired girl shouted, “Ren, Ren, look at how cute she is! That tail looks so soft and cuddly!” 

‘Ren’ put his hand on the girl’s shoulder again, “Don’t overwhelm her, Nora.” 

Ruina hadn’t noticed herself get into a defensive stance, but it certainly made sense. ‘Nora’ had that look like someone about to fling themselves at someone and suffocate them with a hug. Granted, there were worse ways to go than suffocation by a cute girl, but she had a job to do here and dying wasn’t part of …that …plan… 

Shit, not again. 

Okay breathe. In for seven seconds, then out for another seven. 

Her eyes were looking all over the room for an escape route. Elevator was the only door, would take forever to get here. Jump out the window?

“Are you alright?” A boy’s voice, asking her a question, Ren was in front of her all of a sudden. She took a step back away from him. Breathe and count damnit. 

In. 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Out. 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

She managed to focus on the floor, she watched the gears turning, still counting with her breathing. 

Eventually she managed to look up to see Ren and Nora standing a respectful distance away. Nora looked worried, she couldn’t read Ren’s face. Gods, twice in one day, She’d been getting better damnit. She felt exhausted. 

“I’m okay, thanks. Kind of a lot for one day, I guess.” She tried to make the smile she gave them as genuine as possible. She hoped it worked. 

Ren just nodded at her. Nora sighed in obvious relief. Behind them she could see Pyrrha discussing something with the headmaster. She wanted to snoop, but she really was tired. 

“Do you want a hug?” Nora offered. 

She paused to think. A hug sounded really nice, but this girl was practically a stranger. 

“She gives remarkably good hugs.” Ren added. 

Another moment to consider, “...Yeah. A hug sounds pretty nice, to be honest.” 

“Yessss! Come to Nora.” Nora stepped forward and wrapped her in a very warm and surprisingly gentle hug. 

The hug was immensely comforting, easily within her top ten hugs. Ruina really enjoyed hugs and just being close to another person. Really the only reason she was defensive at first was because they were strangers and Pyrrha was one of them. Pyrrha’s presence always managed to put her on guard. On guard also meant that she’d start over analyzing things as well, all of her training kicking in due to the mere presence of her rival. Now to top it off she got triggered too. She hated this, how broken she was. 

Her thoughts having drifted so made the hug less appealing, so she let go of Nora and gave her a smile in thanks. 

“Anytime you need a hug, you just let me know. I got you.” Nora said with a warm smile. 

“Thanks… that really gives me hope that we can make this team thing work.”

Nora’s smile faltered for a moment before she answered, “You betcha.” 

“...sor are you sure an exception can’t be made?” She heard as she started to tune into Pyrrha speaking with Professor Ozpin. 

“Quite sure, Miss Nikos. Being on a team is about learning to work with others, even ones we may take issue with or have…” he paused to take a sip from his mug, “...history with.” 

She could see Pyrrha’s shoulders slump. Wow, she’d never seen Pyrrha so off before, this was a whole new side to her. The Pyrrha she knew was always focused in the face of an enemy or perfectly composed in the face of the media or the public in general. This girl looked hopeless, resigned ...defeated. 

Holy shit this is what Pyrrha looked like when she lost. The idea that Pyrrha could lose was nearly foreign to her, Sure she might have hoped to beat her in the past, but that hope had been quickly pushed aside. Who would have thought that the thing to defeat Pyrrha Nikos would be some school rules? The idea almost made her laugh. The Invincible Girl no longer. 

“Jeez, Nikos, you look like someone stepped on all of your hopes and dreams.” She said. 

Pyrrha turned to look at her with a glare. Crap, she hadn’t meant it to be  _ that  _ mean. 

“Er, I just mean maybe …lighten up? It’s really not the end of the world and…” she swallowed, “maybe we can get along?”

Pyrrha eyed her for a long moment, looking her straight in the eyes. She was trying to evaluate her, looking to see how honest she was being?

“Perhaps.” Pyrrha eventually answered. 

“Excellent.” Ozpin smoothly cut in, “Now why don’t you show Miss Nivis to your dormitory. Remember that you’re only excused from classes for today, you’ll all be expected to return to them tomorrow.” 

The four of them gave their sounds of compliance and turned to go. As they started to enter the elevator though Ruina turned to look at the headmaster once more. 

“Thank you for the opportunity Professor, I really do appreciate it.” 

“Of course, Miss Nivis.” He responded with a smile. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


The four members of the newly christened team RRVN made their way across campus. Nora spent most of the time talking about Beacon and all of its perks with a funny story sprinkled in. Ren regularly interjected corrections to the stories as Nora had a penchant for wild exaggerations. Pyrrha kept silent the whole way, her face back to its usual composure.

They made a stop to grab her uniform and suitcase before making it to their dorm building across campus, going up the stairs to the second floor and into a long hallway. Everything looked extremely uniform, it might be the most nondescript hallways she’d ever seen. 

“Aaaannd here we are!” Nora made a grand gesture toward the next door on their left. “This is our room and right across the hall is team RWBY. You’ll meet them later, they’re good friends.” 

Ruina nodded and brought her scroll up to the pad next to the door, a quiet beep and a green light indicated the door was unlocked. Opening the door she walked in a few steps and took in the room. 

Her first impression of the room was that it was kind of ...bare. Sure there were plenty of books, okay there were alot of books on multiple wall-mounted shelves, but aside from that the walls were bare of any decoration. The beds were laid out in a boring arrangement against the far wall with the heads against the wall. There was a window in the middle of that wall with a short bookshelf below it. On that bookshelf was the only sign of someone actually living here, a pair of pink headphones. 

“Love what you’ve done with the place,” Ruina snarked, “the headphones really bring it all together.” 

“Yeah well, Ren and I did a lot of moving around before we made it here, so we don’t have a lot of stuff.” 

Oh. She’d heard that story before, people who lived in the wilds, moving around all the time. It was a rough life. Combine that with one of their team members leaving and you get a pretty empty room. Still, Pyrrha shouldn’t have any shortage of money from all of her sponsorships, and so she should have more than ...nothing. The headphones didn’t look like the type Pyrrha would own, she tended more toward red and gold or brass colors. Something was off about Pyrrha, she was different. 

“Ahhh, right that makes sense.” She paused to scratch at the back of her head awkwardly, “So uh, which one is mine?” 

“Oh, this baby over here!” Nora said as she once again extravagantly threw her arms wide, presenting the bed to the far right. 

Smiling gratefully she pulled her suitcase to the corner bed and started to unpack her things. She set her spear, Schédio, in the corner and then started unloading her personal items. She set her books on languages on the bookshelf above the desk closest to her bed, It looked like it was supposed to be her desk judging by it lacking in anything on the desk itself. She pulled out her book on ancient Mistralian and set it on the desk itself, she wanted to brush up on it with Pyrrha on her team. 

Basic school supplies, like paper, pens and notebooks made it onto the desk as well. Her scroll charger went in the outlet that was blessedly close to her bed. A framed picture of her dad for the desk, earbuds on the bed, small jewelry case on the desk. She unpacked quickly and efficiently. Clothes in the huge shared closet, meds and toiletries in the bathroom. The shower looked decent and was one of those combined bath and shower things. Taking a bath might be nice, maybe she should get some scented bubble bath for that? 

“How’s the water pressure on the shower here?” She asked as she stepped out of the bathroom. 

“Who cares about the water pressure when it’s ALWAYS HOT!” Nora practically shouted. 

Ren shrugged and Pyrrha ...ignored her again. 

Her ears twitched at Nora’s exclamation. It didn’t hurt like some people thought, but it was surprising. She mentally shrugged it off, it wasn’t a big deal. There were more important things to think about, like what to do with the rest of her first day. She was all done unpacking and they had the rest of the day free. 

“Well I’m all unpacked and we have the rest of the day free, anyone wanna join me for some training?” The rest of her team blinked at her in surprise, “Er …or we could get to know each other?” That was the right thing for a leader to do, right? 

“Ooohhh, yes! Okay okay, let’s all sit in a circle and we can introduce ourselves and say something we enjoy.” Nora said, excitedly sitting on the ground and pulling Ren down with her. 

Ruina looked at Pyrrha, who seemed to be taking her time in sitting down. She pointedly shrugged at her and took a seat across from Nora. 

Once Pyrrha had sat down, still a little rigidly, Nora started them up.

“Okay, I’m Nora Valkyrie, she/her pronouns, my favorite food is pancakes and I’m Ren’s partner.” Nora smiled. 

Ruina smiled and nodded in appreciation at the inclusion of pronouns. 

Nora seemed to think she meant something else though, “W-well not ‘Partner’-partner, just like, combat partner!” 

That was ...weird. 

“Wait, I forgot about partners, does that make me Pyrrha’s…?” She asked carefully. 

Everyone turned to look at Pyrrha, her composed face was up, “Yes, I suppose it does.” Pyrrha answered. She sounded neither happy or unhappy about that, it sounded forced to Ruina. 

“My name is Lie Ren, but please call me Ren. He/him pronouns for today and I enjoy cooking and self-improvement.”

“Right, I’m Ruina Nivis, seven- er,  _ eighteen  _ now, and I use she/her pronouns.” She’d almost forgotten she turned 18 just two months ago, “I like dueling, dancing and dead languages.” 

“The three D’s, huh?” Nora said.

“Sometimes four.” She winked. A moment later she cringed on the inside. She wasn’t here to flirt. She didn’t need that sort of distraction. She was here to learn and get better. She  _ had _ to be better. 

“Domination, huh? The cute ones are always the kinkiest.” Nora smoothly replied with a laugh.

Ruina couldn’t stop the giggle from escaping her mouth. Well, at least Nora had a good sense of humor. She’d hate to be stuck with a team that didn’t know how to crack jokes while training. They had a lot of training ahead of them, or they would if she had anything to say about it, and jokes were a good way to keep the spirits up. Even the least motivated people could stick to training if their spirits were high enough. 

They’d been laughing for a good minute now and even Ren had cracked a smile. There was something still off with Pyrrha, though. She wasn’t laughing or smiling, just …sitting there. 

“How ‘bout you, Nikos?” She asked. 

Pyrrha ducked her head a little bit, “I didn’t think it was necessary, seeing as everyone here knows me already.” 

“Well why don’t you tell us how you two know each other then?” Nora asked with a smile. That girl could smile all day it seemed. 

“I must admit to being curious, myself.” Ren added. 

Pyrrha looked to her expectantly. 

“Nope, I already took my turn, this is all you.” Ruina leaned back, propping herself up with her arms. 

“Well, Ruina and I went to Sanctum Academy together. For all but my last year, at least.” 

“What happened in the last year?” Ren asked. 

“Ruina was accepted into Haven Academy a year early.” Pyrrha answered with her voice still level. 

“Ohhhh, so she’s like Ruby!” Nora chirped. 

“Ruby?” Ruina asked. 

“Ruby Rose. She’s the leader of team RWBY.” Ren answered. 

“She got in two years early for stopping a dust robbery by some big shot criminal in Vale.” Nora added. Ren and Nora sure seemed to complement each other well, nearly finishing each other’s sentences. 

“Huh, two years early and a team leader too? I’ll have to meet this girl.” She sounded interesting- and talented, probably a good sparring partner. Though she had Nikos to spar with now so she didn’t need to hunt so hard for sparring partners. At Haven she’d had to really look hard for good sparring Partners. Only a couple of them had really managed to provide her with much of a challenge, Arslan and Sun came to mind. 

“We’ll likely see team RWBY at lunch, soon.” Pyrrha added. 

“Wait a second ...if you got into Haven a year early, what are you doing here, on a first year team?” Nora asked with what seemed like mock suspicion. 

She cringed, dropping her head and feeling her ears wilt backwards, “I’d rather not go into details but ...I started my second year and needed to transfer. Your team was the only one that had an opening.”    
  
She braced herself for the questions for more details ...but they never came. Ren just nodded his understanding, while Nora gave her a sad smile. Pyrrha was the one who looked most curious, it seemed that was enough to pull off her mask. She looked at Ruina with what seemed to be genuine concern. It wasn’t too often students needed a transfer. The Academies didn’t like to do them unless absolutely and reserved them for extreme situations. Situations like losing part of a team. The rest of her team seemed to have a guess about her situation, it was the most common reason, after all. 

“Right, well…” She desperately grasped for any reason to escape this awkwardness, “You said something about lunch? How soon is that?” 

“Oh, if we leave now we’ll only be a few minutes early. Maybe I can get them to make a batch of pancakes…” Nora mused or… schemed was probably the better way to describe her. She looked like she had a comically evil scheme cooked up.

“Nora, you can’t have pancakes for every meal.” Ren admonished as they all got to their feet. 

“Watch me.” Nora replied with an evil grin. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Beacon Academy had a nice dining hall. Sure the design was very ‘modern’ but that was just kinda Vale’s aesthetic. Not quite the ‘future’ look, like Atlas, but not ‘traditional’, like Mistral. She let the rest of her team take the lead into the dining hall where they went straight to a table in the middle of the massive room. Lunch hadn’t started yet, so they couldn’t grab anything and had to kill time waiting. 

Ruina sat on the end of the bench, bouncing a leg idly. It wasn’t that she was bored, she just needed to do it to be able to focus right now. The rest of her team were going on about some recurring dream Nora had been having. She smiled and laughed at Nora’s wild exaggerations, followed by Ren correcting her. Pyrrha even cracked a smile a couple of times. Pyrrha was still being cold with her, but that wasn’t  _ that  _ new for their ‘relationship’. Still she worried that if it continued on like this it would make being on a team together annoying and counterproductive. 

Eventually the cafeteria itself did open properly. Nora was not able to convince them to make her any pancakes, so she settled on an obscene amount of burgers, hot dogs and fries. Ren had actually brought his own ‘lunch’ in the form of a questionably colored smoothie. Pyrrha got a salad with chicken and a bunch of vegetables that she didn’t even recognize. Ruina herself went with some grilled teriyaki chicken on a bed of rice, a salad on the side. The food looked pretty good, all in all. 

A few minutes into their meal, during which Ruina tried very hard to ignore the awkward sounds from Nora, three girls sat at their table straight across from them. One wore a red cloak on her uniform and looked a bit young, not that she was in a place to judge. Another had black hair with a black bow tied up in it and a bulky black belt around her waist. The last had a huge mane of blonde hair and hadn’t added anything extra to her uniform, as many others seemed to. 

“Hey guys, who’s this?” The blonde girl asked right off.

“Oh, this is Ruina, she’s the new member of our team.” Nora answered, “Ruina, this is Yang and that’s Blake and Ruby.” 

She waved with a smile, “Nice to meet you.” 

The three girls seemed to deflate a bit at the announcement but recovered well enough to say hello as well. They must have been friends with RRVN’s old team leader. Hopefully they didn’t treat her as coldly as Pyrrha had been. She’d really prefer to get along with these people she’d be spending the next few years with. 

“Where’s the Ice Queen?” Nora asked. 

“Ah, she stayed behind to talk with Professor Oobleck about some extra credit assignment or something, again.” Ruby answered. 

“I still don’t understand why she continues to do that, her grade is already the highest in the class.” Pyrrha commented

That peaked Ruina’s attention, someone else who was serious about their grades. If there was one thing she herself was better at than Pyrrha it was academics. Back at Sanctum Pyrrha seemed happy to sit at an A- average, with her combat scores carrying a lot of weight. Ruina accepted nothing less than an A+ for herself, she had to be better, had to prove herself. If this girl was also serious about her grades she might be a fun rival or a nice study buddy. 

“So what are you guys up to today?” Yang asked around a mouthful of food. 

“Yeah, I noticed you weren’t in class today.” Ruby added. 

“We were excused from classes today due to Ruina’s arrival.” Ren answered, possibly because the other three of them were busy chewing at that moment. 

Ruina finished swallowing her food, “Well I managed to get settled into the dorm already. I was thinking of trying to get some training in for us, I wanna see what my new team can do.”

She noticed Blake raise an eyebrow at that from behind the book that she hadn’t put down the entire time. She realized now that Blake hadn’t said a word since she and her teammates had arrived, another quiet type? 

“Oh hey, Ruby, you’re team leader right? Is there any sort of protocol for renting out a training room or something? I know Haven had something like that for Team Leaders to manage.” 

“Oh, yeah! You can actually do it through the Teamspace app on your scroll. If you’re a leader you should have an extra tab for reserving the use of facilities and equipment.” Ruby answered with a bright smile. 

She nodded and opened her scroll to check out the Teamspace app that she remembered Ozpin mentioning. It was indeed already on her scroll and she could see what was available to reserve for today. It seemed both the advanced combat training rooms were booked for today, in addition to the indoor combat training rooms. Luckily it seemed outdoor training arena #4 was available for the next 6 hours. She supposed that would have to do for today. 

“Alright,” She turned to her team, “team RRVN has outdoor training arena number four booked for the next six hours.” 

Her team looked …put off by this statement. Nora looked shocked, while Pyrrha had both eyebrows raised, Ren looked …okay Ren didn’t look put off, he was just looking at her. To the side she could see that the members of team RWBY looked similarly surprised. Yang was giving her a look like she was trying to figure her out. Ruby looked truly surprised, mouth hanging open and all. Blake had put her book down and raised her eyebrow, again. 

Before she could comment on their surprise, however, they were interrupted by a large boy with orange hair, wearing some boring grey armor. That was her first clue to the value of him as a person, everyone knew armor didn’t help unless your aura was down. And if your aura is down then you were more likely than not to be exhausted already, to the point of not being able to function well in that armor. It was really so much smarter to just go without and save what energy you could for trying to escape if your aura broke. 

“Wow, I didn’t think you could get worse than Jauney boy for your team, but now I see you got a literal  _ animal _ .” The boy commented.

Oh, a racist and a bully too, this guy was just ticking all the boxes for ‘terrible human being’. She rolled her eyes and ignored him, her usual response for racists. 

“Cardin. Leave.” Yang said with the obvious sound of a threat.

She looked up at that, noticing that every single person around her looked ready to fight this asshole right here, in the middle of the school cafeteria. Now admittedly she was new to Beacon, but she figured the rules about not fighting other students outside of sanctioned fights were still a thing here. Still, to be safe she turned around on her bench to keep her legs free and able to react. 

“You know, when I turned your leader in for those transcripts I figured I was doing your team a favor, getting rid of the dead weight. Now though, I’m almost sorry, I mean look at this freak.” Carden reached out at the end and grabbed one of her ears. 

Now her ears weren’t as sensitive as some Faunus’, and she had activated her aura, just in case. Still she wasn’t about to tolerate someone grabbing her and that could clearly be construed as an attack. So she defended herself. 

Springing up from her seat she summoned a small black glyph under his right heel, affixing it to the floor. In the same motion she launched herself upward high enough to slam her palm into the bottom of his jaw. The surprise was enough to get him to release his hold on her ear. She then put all of her aura into her strength and shoved. 

With a comic flailing of his arms the bully ‘tripped’ and fell backward, slamming his head on a table bench behind him. Not what she intended his head to hit, but it would do well enough. She released her glyph before anyone could notice the odd way his heel was still stuck to the ground. 

“Don’t touch me, asshole.” She glared at him. 

Cardin scrambled to his feet and scurried away like the coward he was. Granted they had him outnumbered 7 to 1, but he was still a coward. So she could infer that Jaune was their old team leader and Cardin had been responsible for getting him expelled. Granted he’d still forged his transcripts, so it wasn’t entirely on Cardin. The guy was still clearly an asshole and a bully and she felt pretty alright with knocking him down a peg. 

“That …was …AWESOME!” Nora screamed. “Ren, did you see that?!” 

“Yes, Nora.” 

“That  _ was _ pretty badass.” Yang gave her an approving nod. 

Pyrrha looked …conflicted. She seemed to want to say something, but then thought better of it. Typical Nikos, always holding back. She wondered if Nikos was always like this with her team or if it was just because of the whole replacing her team leader thing. She decided that she’d sit down and try to get things back to normal. 

It took a few minutes for everyone to settle down. She tried to explain to Ruby how to do the palm uppercut she had done, when the girl asked about it. She could tell it wasn’t quite getting absorbed, though. Yang asked her if she had much hand-to-hand training and she explained that she just knew some fundamentals that she learned at Haven. Nora wanted to have an arm wrestling contest, which she turned down, explaining that she really wasn’t that strong unless she put a ton of aura into it. Nora immediately offered to help her with strength training, which she accepted. No reason to turn down an opportunity to get stronger, literally in this case. 

She caught Pyrrha’s eye for a moment, “So …that was the guy?” 

Pyrrha winced, “Yes. That was Cardin Winchester. He learned about Jaune’s forged transcripts and spent most of the semester blackmailing him.” 

“Wow,” Ruina was surprised at just how awful this guy was, “what an absolute shit.” 

“Mmm,” Pyrrha hummed in agreement, “Just when we thought we’d gotten him out from under Cardin’s thumb, Cardin went public with the information.” Her face fell and she looked on the verge of tears, “Perhaps if it hadn’t been made public then Professor Ozpin could have done something, but… with it public we suspect he was forced to keep up the image of the school. All at the cost of Jaune’s hopes and dreams.” She did cry then. A single tear from the corner of her eye. 

Ruina swallowed hard. She’d never seen Pyrrha like this, so uncomposed, so raw. Her heart ached in sympathy. She felt guilt for taking Jaune’s place. Even if he’d forged his transcripts, he’d obviously survived initiation and been accepted by these people around her. It seemed unfair for him to be expelled over such a technicality at this point. 

“For what it’s worth,” she started with the most apologetic face she could, “I’m sorry. That doesn’t sound very fair.” 

Pyrrha gave her a weak smile, then turned away, seeming to try and regain her composure. 

Just about everyone had finished eating by now, but there was still half the lunch period left over, according to the rest of her team. It seemed everyone had forgotten their surprise over her training plans for their team, which was fine with her. It would be easier to get them to go along with it if they realized they had forgotten to voice their doubts. They probably weren’t used to a very strict training regimen, based on their initial reactions. Well they would have to get used to it with her leading. They were here to become Huntsmen and Huntresses, and you don’t do that without a lot of hard work. 

“Hey there Weiss cream, you finally made it.” Yang’s greeting pulled her attention from her thoughts. 

Approaching their group now was a short girl with white hair, the same shade as hers, tied up in an off-center ponytail. She had pale skin and blue eyes, a very slim and elegant figure. She managed to pull off being really pretty, instead of just cute, despite her stature. The sight gave her hope that maybe she could pull that off herself, if she tried. Belatedly she noticed a scar over the girl’s left eye and wow, her eyes looked really pretty ...and really familiar. 

“Oh, Weiss, this is Ruina, Juniper’s new leader. Er, actually what’s your guys’ team name now?” Ruby asked. 

Wait, Weiss? 

The girl reached her hand out for a handshake, “Weiss Schnee, a pleasure to meet you.”

Weiss. Schnee. 

Shit. 

“Schnee?!” Ruina pulled her outstretched hand back before she could touch Weiss. 

“Yes, is that a problem?” Weiss asked haughtily. 

“No- yes, fuck. Shit shit shit. I have to go. I’m going.” 

This couldn’t be happening. What was Weiss doing at Beacon?! What the actual fuck? She couldn’t deal with this for four more years. How was she supposed to deal with- 

_ Weiss _

She rushed out of the dining hall, moving into a jog and even an all out sprint. Couldn’t deal with this. Couldn’t deal with _that_ _girl_. Why was this happening? _That girl_ was supposed to be in Atlas with her perfect life and racist family. Why was she at Beacon? 

She had to get away from her. 

Across the campus she sprinted, paying no attention to where she was going. 

Had to get away from-

_ Weiss.  _

She shook her head to try and get the thought out of her head, but it wouldn’t go. 

_ Schnee. _

She had to get away, she couldn’t deal with this. 

She slammed into a closed door, pounding her fist into it before she shoved it open.

_ Weiss Schnee. _

Her sister.

Fuck. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I'm really doing this! Okay, thank you for checking out this fic! I'd love to hear what you think of this in the comments, they're what fuel me to keep writing. 
> 
> Updates for this may not be so regular, but I'm aiming for about once a week at about this size.


	2. Chapter 2

Ruina stumbled her way through the dorm building and into her team’s room. As soon as the door closed she was screaming expletives. This was the worst possible situation. She dove onto her bed and screamed wordlessly into the pillow. All her pent up feelings she screamed into the pillow. Her anger, her loneliness, her longing, her impotence. She hated this. Hated herself right now. 

She couldn’t deal with this. Weiss. Her sister.  _ The Schnee _ . What was a Schnee doing at Beacon, anyway? The Huntsman profession was far too noble for the likes of a Schnee. She would have expected that if Weiss wanted to be a huntress that she would go to Atlas Academy and become a ‘specialist’. Specialists were a perversion of the idea of the Huntsman. Huntsmen were supposed to be free to go where they were needed, to help whoever needed it. Instead specialists were beholden to the Atlas military and all of it’s regulations and politics, including the racist ones. 

Now here she was, stuck at the same school as a Schnee for the next four years. As if repeating a year wasn’t enough. To make matters worse, it seemed that her team was already friends with Weiss and the rest of her team. She’d be  _ stuck _ having to interact with her. 

Maybe if she just kept busy enough she could avoid her. For four years. Four years of taking the same classes and training together. Right. 

That reminded her that she’d scheduled training with her team, that was good. She could just focus on the training, don’t give her mind a chance to think about stupid interpersonal feelings for her stupid racist sister. 

She sighed into the pillow.

What time was it anyway? Shouldn’t her team be back by now? How long had she been in the dorm? Ruina rolled over with a groan and pulled open her scroll. Lunch break was just ending, so they might be back soon. Ugh. On the one hand, she was eager to get started on training. On the other hand she did  _ not _ want to have to explain what happened. 

The sound of the scroll reader beeping outside caught her attention, that was some unfortunate timing, seems they were back. Nora peeked her head in and smiled at her before opening the door to allow the three of them to come in. Ren and Pyrrha followed her in and they all sat on Pyrrha’s bed, next to hers. 

“So… you wanna tell us what that was about?” Nora asked. 

She cringed and drew in on herself, “Not really, but I kinda have to…” 

Ren nodded understanding. Pyrrha looked at her with ...concern? Huh, real emotions from Nikos, that was new. 

“Well, you know I’m a faunus,” Nora perked up at that, “and before you ask, my traits are similar to an arctic fox. Please don’t call me a ‘fox faunus’” 

Nora seemed confused for a moment before moving on to a grin. 

“Right, well, the Schnee family, especially through the SDC, has a bad history of mistreating faunus workers.” She tried really hard to sound impassioned, but to her it just sounded like her voice was strained. 

“But Weiss isn’t like that!” Nora said. 

“We have not witnessed any act of racism on her part.” Ren added. 

She grimaced, of course they’d trust Weiss over her. 

“They’re right, you know. Weiss may be a bit high strung, but she has never been outright hateful of others based on their species.” Pyrrha stated with conviction. 

“Of course she isn’t,” she snapped, “the SDC have an image to keep up, and like it or not as the heiress to the company she is a representative of the SDC. She would have been taught to hide that.” 

The three of them paused to consider that idea. Nora looked hurt at the possibility, while Pyrrha was concerned, whether for them or Weiss or Ruina, she couldn’t tell. Ren looked thoughtful, pensive. She almost had her escape from this conversation, just a little more. 

“Look I know I just got here and you’ve known her for months, but just …try to understand my caution here. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to make her earn my trust.” 

It was Pyrrha who answered, “I suppose that is understandable.” 

She forced a smile, “Thank you. Now, we should really put this behind us because we have training to get to.” 

“Do we  _ really  _ have to train for six hours on our day off?” Nora whined. 

“Hey, this was supposed to be a school day, we have to make up for that here. And besides we have a lot to catch up on, and a whole new team dynamic to figure out.” She pointed at Nora and Ren, “I don’t know even how you two fight at all and haven’t seen Nikos fight in nearly a year, we’ve got work to do.”

Nora groaned, but followed Ruina and the rest of the team out of the door anyway. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


They had to make a pit stop at the locker rooms for the rest of her team to change into their combat attire and retrieve their weapons. While they were changing she got her own locker assigned and synced to her scroll. The whole rocket propelled locker felt like a weird, kinda unnecessary thing. She’d miss the comforting weight of Schédio on her back, but rules were rules.

The outdoor training arena was a large rectangle of stone with measurement markers and lines all over it. She could see how that could be useful for learning the exact reach or movement of techniques or people. She and the rest of RRVN were limbering up, at her suggestion. Aura might help heal a pulled muscle quickly, but it would still hurt for a moment, and that could cost you in the real world. She spent some time during their warm up to examine her new teammates' weapons. 

Nora, it turned out, used a giant fuck-off hammer. She had mecha-shifted it from some sort of ranged weapon form, so it was good to know she had both a close and long ranged option. She swung it around with a shocking amount of control, she was clearly much stronger than her small frame suggested. Her mind had already started to think of potential team attacks with the pink-clad girl. 

Ren used a pair of SMG’s with dagger blades pointing down from the barrel. A bit unorthodox, in her opinion, but she supposed it would allow for some unique stabbing attacks that weren’t a thrust, maybe even allowing him to put momentum behind them, which was an interesting idea. He moved smoothly through some sort of unarmed martial arts forms for his warm up. It was nice to see he had the discipline necessary for that. 

Pyrrha was doing the same warm up she’d seen her do hundreds of times. Smooth and precise katas with her weapons. Plenty of mech-shifts involved so she had the perfect weapon form for each strike. Pyrrha had essentially created a martial art just for her specific weapons and it was a thing of beauty to watch. 

Ruina herself was working through her own forms with her ‘spear’, Schédio. At first glance it looked like a white staff, with black accents on the grips at the center and each end. It didn’t mecha-shift, but it did have multiple dust chambers. The first and most important, was water dust. With the help of her father and his former profession in Atlas they had built a water cutting jet into one of the ends of Schédio. Normally it wouldn’t be terribly effective as a weapon, but with the help of her semblance she made it one. She could speed up the water in it with her glyphs to create a weaponized water cutting jet, thus making it a spear- at least in her eyes. 

The other dust chambers and actuators were much simpler. A wind dust chamber to allow her to create gusts of wind with her swings and a lightning dust chamber on the opposite end from the water jet. The lightning dust gave her a non-lethal take down option, kind of like a taser. She could adjust the voltage by how much aura she fed into it, so it wasn’t strictly for people without an aura, but it ate through her meager dust supply fast. 

“Alright, come over here,” she said to gather her team up. 

They all finished their warm ups and made their way over. 

“So, I wanna know about all your combat styles, just give me a basic idea. First though,” she turned to Pyrrha, “Nikos, has your style changed significantly since the last MRT?” 

Pyrrha shook her head, “No.” 

“Alright, I know that well enough then.” Nora was bouncing with excitement, so she turned to her first, “Nora, what’s your style like?” 

“I smash things with my hammer!” Nora grinned. 

When she didn’t say anything else Ruina quirked an eyebrow, “Is …that all?” 

“I smash them  _ really _ hard.” 

She looked to Pyrrha for something, anything, maybe even a proper explanation? 

Pyrrha shook her head, “It’s a good explanation for her fighting style. What she lacks in finesse, she makes up for with sheer strength.” 

Well that was… a starting point. She held back a grimace.

“Nora, your grenade launcher.” Ren verbally prodded her. 

“Oh, Right! It can also do this!” And she mecha-shifted it to a grenade launcher. “With this I can make things  _ explode _ , or even launch myself with it! I like to launch myself waaaaay up high and then crash into them for the pounding of their lifetime!” Nora grinned. 

“Nora!” Ren chided. 

“What? It’s true!”

Ruina laughed, “Alright, I can work with that. How ‘bout you, Ren?” 

“Quick and precise strikes, with an emphasis on mobility.” Ren answered succinctly. 

“Okay then. Let me think about this. For now, could I see one of you sparring with someone else? Doesn’t matter who, we’ll all be sparring with everyone else at least once tonight.” 

Nora and Ren nodded and were the first to square off with each other. It was an ...interesting fight. A lot of Ren running around just outside of Nora’s reach, then darting in for a few quick strikes. Nora seemed to have a fairly hefty amount of Aura, based on how many hits she took from Ren. On the opposing side, Ren was getting tired fast and just a couple of grazes from Nora’s hammer had his aura looking low. 

She walked over to Pyrrha and nodded toward Ren and Nora, “So what do you make of them?” 

“What do you mean?” Pyrrha asked suspiciously. 

Ruina rolled her eyes, “Their strengths, weaknesses, things they always fall for? Things they need to work on?” 

Pyrrha narrowed her eyes, “I try not to analyze my friends like they’re the enemy, Ruina.” 

She did a double take at Pyrrha, “Are you serious? Nikos come on, you’re a  _ duelist,  _ like me. I know you analyze everyone you see.” 

“No, I don’t.” Pyrrha looked upset now, weird, “I’m here to learn to fight the Creatures of Grimm and  _ protect  _ other people.”

“Holy shit you’re serious.” This was crazy. How did Pyrrha turn it off? Ruina was a duelist and her mind was always keeping track of little things about people around her. She’d trained her mind to be a combat calculator. Even paying attention to her conversation with Pyrrha she was noting how with Ren getting tired quickly he was taking unnecessary risks. She could see how Nora was getting desperate to end the fight as Ren got closer to the breaking point of his aura. 

Speaking of breaking point, Nora landed a blow on the ground right next to Ren, and the shockwave from the aura infused strike was enough to throw Ren back and into a lamp post nearby. His aura held, but was in the red, according to her scroll. 

“Match!” She called out to end the spar. 

Nora and Ren both slumped down to sit on the ground, panting. They’d really given this spar their all, they both needed to learn to pace themselves better. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


They took turns sparring from there, everyone got to fight each other at least once. She and Pyrrha both held back a fair amount and called their match without a victor because they were taking too long and neither wanted to use their semblance. Nora and Ren got a talking to about pacing themselves. The idea being that if you pace yourself then you don’t get too tired over a long fight, allowing a team to frequently swap out who’s actively fighting. This lets the others take some time to rest and recover their aura. That strategy only really works if you’re not too exhausted to  _ use _ your aura in the first place, though. 

She learned that Nora really was ludicrously strong and that she had  _ a lot _ of energy. Even after running herself ragged she didn’t need much of a rest before she was back on her feet. Ren got tired quickly, but was absolutely determined to get better. She’d look into some endurance training for him, that should help. 

Pyrrha had been treating her coldly, so she avoided further conversation with her new partner. Between that coldness and some other strange feelings which she couldn’t quite identify, she opted to focus on critiquing the sparring matches. She quickly realized that focusing on the matches wasn’t enough to stop her thoughts about what she was feeling after Pyrrha’s words. She felt …awkward and judged, like she didn’t measure up. She’d felt a little bit of that from herself, in the past. Whenever she fought Pyrrha in a major competition she’d get that from herself, but not directly from the champion, not until now. Maybe if she had someone to talk to about it she could learn how to deal with it. That would require talking with someone else about her feelings, though, and that’s a hard pass. Better to focus on her training and figuring out this team leader thing. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Alright, break time!” Ruina called out. 

Ren and Nora collapsed on the spot. Ren flat on his back, Nora with her head resting on one of his legs. They were gasping for breath, like this was their first time training. 

“Fifteen minutes for this break, make sure you hydrate.” 

Two pained groans were the only answer she got. 

Ruina sat on the ground to sip at her water bottle. They had been at it for about four hours so far and she was starting to feel tired herself. Just that first hint, not the deep exhaustion that would let her sleep safely. Just a couple more hours of this then she could go back to her dorm to do some studying and exhaust her mind too. 

“I’m not sure they can take any more of this today.” Pyrrha said, towering over her. 

“Sure they can, it’s only two more hours.” 

“They’re not used to this sort of training, you should- you  _ need _ to let them rest” Pyrrha stared down at her with intense green eyes. 

She really cared about them, huh. 

“Alright, one condition: You stay and train with me until I’m exhausted.” She stared Pyrrha down. Sure she was sitting on the ground while Pyrrha was standing, but she was also five foot nothing, she’d learned how to stare down people taller than her. 

Pyrrha made a face which she was quite familiar with, sadness, loss. Eventually she nodded, though. 

Ruina nodded back before grabbing two water bottles and hopping to her feet. She walked over to Nora and Ren, still panting on the floor. 

“Alright, go ahead and head back to the dorm.” She said while holding a bottle out to each of them. 

The partners looked confused, but Nora recovered quickly, “Oh my  _ god _ , yesss.” She struggled to her feet before helping pull Ren to his as well. They both grabbed the water bottles before walking off. 

“Oh my god, she’s a slave driver!” She heard Nora whisper to Ren once they were out of human hearing range. Seems she was too tired to remember Ruina’s ears. 

She felt a little bad for pushing them so hard, maybe she needed those leadership classes after all. There had to be a way to keep them from feeling that bad while training. Maybe they just needed to get used to putting in that much effort, thought they should be used to it after nearly a full semester at Beacon.

Once Ren and Nora had passed out of sight she made her way over to Pyrrha. Pyrrha looked uncomfortable, but resigned to her fate. 

“So what’s the deal with them being so tired? Four hours isn’t  _ that  _ much training.”

Pyrrha grimaced, “Well, Jaune’s training methods were …very different from this.” 

She tilted her head to the side, “How so? I’d be curious what a leader picked out of Beacon initiation did for team training.” 

Pyrrha was slow to answer, “Jaune was more partial to …team building exercises?” 

“...Like what?” She narrowed her eyes, she had a bad feeling about this. 

“Well one that he was particularly fond of was a …war tactics simulation.” 

“Oh?” That sounded interesting, “Did it have a name? Maybe I could look it up.” 

Pyrrha looked away at that, her body language screamed ‘guilty’. 

Ruina gave her time to answer, but Pyrrha just continued to look away from her, a somewhat distant look on her face. 

“Uh… Remnant to Nikos?” 

Pyrrha grimaced again, “It was …Remnant, The Game.” 

Ruina blinked. 

She stared at Pyrrha, doubting her ears. 

“You …mean the board game?” 

Pyrrha nodded.

“He had you play board games for team training. Are you kidding me?” She buried her face in the palms of her hands. This was unbelievable. “Why are you surprised he got expelled again?” She groaned and shook her head in frustration. 

“Excuse me?” Pyrrha sounded affronted. 

“It sounds like the guy didn’t even know how to train his team properly. Board games made for twelve year-olds are  _ not _ suitable training material! Did you guys even do any physical training?!”

She was mad. No way around admitting that. The leader Pyrrha was still bitter about Ruina replacing was useless. His team couldn’t even handle four hours of training after having no classes all day. It pushed her buttons just right to make her seethe. That sort of attitude in a Huntsman Academy is exactly how idiots get passed as Huntsmen and then do a piss poor job. Pyrrha should know this! Wasn’t she  _ just _ saying how she’s here to train to  _ protect  _ people? How could she honestly be this upset over the loss of someone like that!

“Jaune may not have been the most physically capable of students, or push for much training, but at least he cared about his teammates and their well being.” Pyrrha retorted. 

“Not physically capable, didn’t push for much training…? Are you even hearing yourself right now, Nikos? That attitude creates bad Huntsman. Huntsman that people are supposed to be able to rely on for protection. Huntsmen like that just let those people down! I thought you said you were here to protect people!” She threw Pyrrha’s words back at her. 

Pyrrha’s eyes widened. Looks of shock, hurt, and realization washed across her face one by one. Last of all was shame. 

“And you think I don’t care about my team’s well being? What about the well being of the people who die because of bad huntsmen?” She drove her point home, savagely.

A small part of her said she went too far, but the larger part pushed that aside over her anger, frustration, ...and loss. 

“Ugh, whatever, I’m gonna go study or something.” She groaned as she grabbed her spear and latched it to her aura on her back. 

She left Pyrrha there as it started to get dark. She couldn’t deal with this right now. She needed something else to distract herself with. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Storming down her dorm hallway, Ruina’s distraction ended up smacking into her, face first, as she came to a corner. She turned the corner and slammed into another person, both of them falling back from each other and to the ground. 

“Oof! Watch where you’re going!” A high-pitched, indignant voice said.

Ruina rubbed her forehead as she looked to see who she had run into …and promptly groaned. Of course she’d run into Weiss Fucking Schnee, right now of all times. 

“Why don’t you watch yourself,  _ snowflake _ .” She bit back and scrambled to her feet. 

Weiss daintily stood and brushed herself off before rolling her eyes at Ruina. 

“ _ Oh _ , it’s you.” 

“Not anymore it’s not,” She said as she made to walk past Weiss. Weiss, however, had other plans and grabbed her forearm as she walked past.

“Hold on, I think you owe me an explanation.” Weiss demanded. 

Ruina froze. She held in a groan and closed her eyes while facing away from Weiss. She wasn’t ready for this. She was already on edge from her talk with Pyrrha and now this. Why not make her deal with the very problem that training was supposed to help her avoid thinking about. 

“Well? What was that back there? What have I done to you for you to treat me like that?” 

“Please, let go.” Ruina whispered as she clenched her eyes closed even tighter. She didn’t want to deal with this. 

Weiss did release her arm at that but continued, “Is this just about my family name?”

Ruina turned to glare at Weiss over her shoulder. Of course this was about her family name. Maybe not entirely for the reason she was thinking, but it did come down to her being a Schnee. Ugh, what a mess. 

“Yeah, it is. So just leave me alone, snowflake.” 

She twitched her tail in irritation and stomped away from Weiss. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


A knock at the door interrupted her brief start to studying. She’d made it back to her room and started to read up on her History of Remnant textbook, however it seemed the universe was dead set on getting in her way this evening. Luckily, Ren answered the door for them. 

“Hey Ren, can I grab Ruina for a minute?” She heard a girl ask. Was that Yang? 

She turned to confirm it was Yang, then got up to follow her outside the room. She really didn’t have any idea what the girl wanted with her, but she had a serious expression on her face. Yang led her down the hall, silently, taking her to the stairs and up to the rooftop. It was a bit cold so once they stopped she curled her tail around her bare legs. 

“So… what’s up, Yang?” She asked tentatively. 

Yang turned to look at her sternly, “You wanna tell me why I found Pyrrha crying at the outdoor training arena?” 

Shit. Yang looked mad. Mad enough to pick a fight with her for making her friend cry. Wait, crying?

“She was crying…?” 

“Yeah. I came out to check out what your style of training was like and found Pyrrha sitting on the ground, crying.” Yang glared at her, “So what happened? I’ve been friends with Pyrrha for this whole semester and I’ve never seen her like this. Now on the first day you’re here I find her crying. So talk.” Yang crossed her arms now, looking fairly intimidating if Ruina was honest. She wished she had her weapon with her.

“Shit. I didn’t mean to make her cry…” She wrapped her arms around herself and felt her ears flatten, “We were talking about my training methods. She thought I was pushing Ren and Nora too hard, and okay maybe she was right, but then we started talking about what their old leader did for training.” 

Yang just raised an eyebrow, unimpressed with that answer. 

“No, you don’t understand, from what she told me his training was …woefully inadequate. She said his preferred method of ‘training’ was a board game. A board game!” 

Yang sighed at that, but Ruina kept going on, she was getting wound up over this again.

“Like, that sort of attitude, not taking their training seriously, that attitude gets people killed! He was clearly a bad leader and a useless fighter too, from what I gathered, and I told her as much. She wasn’t--”

“Lemme stop you right there.” Yang said with a finger up. Her anger had faded and her shoulders slumped. 

Ruina blinked in surprise at the interruption, but let Yang continue. 

“Maybe take a seat.” Yang gestured toward the edge of the roof. 

She pursed her lips as she tried to figure out where this was going.

Following Yang’s lead, she sat on the edge of the roof. Once again she wrapped her tail around herself and over her legs. She picked at her tail, removing the few bits of dirt and debris that clung to it.

“Alright so, it sounds like you need to learn more about Jaune.” Yang started, kicking her feet against the edge of the building, “Jaune was…  **is** a good person. Sure when he got here he had no fighting experience at all-” 

“What?!” She couldn’t stop herself from crying out. 

“Forged transcripts, remember? Not that any of us knew that, except Pyrrha, apparently.” Yang paused to think for a moment, “Anyway, he worked with his team well enough, Pyrrha is obviously a good enough fighter to cover him and he brought other things to the table.” 

“Such as?” She asked, deadpan.

“Uh… tactics?” Yang scratched at the back of her head with an awkward smile, “He was a good tactician.”

“If he thought Remnant: The Game could transfer over to team tactics then I guarantee that he was not.” She narrowed her eyes. 

“Well Ruby liked him, and watching him annoy Weiss was pretty funny.” 

“Not helping his case, even if annoying the snowflake is a worthy cause. All this is telling me is that I was right on the money. I don’t see why pointing this out would make her cry. He was a bad leader and would be a bad Huntsman, at this rate.” 

Yang grimaced, “Well, there is one reason she would be crying…” The blonde girl sighed, “I think Pyrrha had a crush on him.” 

“What.” 

“I don’t know.” Yang shrugged, “Apparently cute and dumb with a heart of gold is her type.” 

Ruina could do nothing but bury her face in both her palms. 

“Yup.” Yang said with a distinctive pop. 

She knew team romances were common. Really common. These things just happen when you’re forced to live with four other people and put your life on the line together. She wouldn’t have expected it from a team still in their first semester, though. Now that she thought about it though, there was probably something going on between Ren and Nora, too. Was her whole team made up of horny teenagers? What a mess she’d gotten herself into. 

Even more surprising, to her, was that it was Pyrrha that was the one who was lovesick. She could understand someone falling  _ for  _ Pyrrha, but she honestly hadn’t ever considered that Pyrrha would be interested in someone else. She frowned in realization. She hadn’t been taking Pyrrha’s emotions into account. For years she’d just seen her as a force of nature. The paragon of duelling. The Invincible Girl. 

Yet here the Invincible Girl was, a lovesick teenager. Maybe ‘heartbroken teenager’ was more accurate now. To make matters even more complicated, as Team Leader it was Ruina’s responsibility to pick up the pieces of the girl’s heart and get her back on her feet well enough for them to be a proper team. What was Ozpin thinking when he chose her as leader?

Ruina sighed and looked toward Yang, “Alright, I’ll make sure to apologize to her.” 

“Good” Yang nodded.

“So are you still planning to beat me up for this or…?”

Yang gave a lighthearted huff before lightly punching her in the arm, “Don’t make my friends cry.” 

  
  


* * *

  
  


By the time Ruina made it back to her dorm she was feeling emotionally tired, at least. That would help her get  _ some _ sleep, she hoped. Pyrrha was back in the room. She was still in her combat outfit, covered with the small amount of grime they had all picked up from their outdoor sparring. She should probably grab a shower to deal with that. First though she had something to do. 

“Hey um, Nikos?” She asked. 

Pyrrha turned to her and just looked ...drained. 

“I just wanted to say--” 

“I’d rather not talk about it right now, Ruina.” Pyrrha cut her off. 

Ruina swallowed hard and felt her ears flatten. Okay then, not just yet. 

Ren was giving her a curious look, while Nora just looked sorry for her. 

“Uh, right. I’ll just …take a shower then.” she finished awkwardly.

She frowned to herself and grabbed her night clothes and towel before heading to the shower. 

The shower head was surprisingly adjustable, able to be moved up or down and detached. Water temperature was nice and hot, just like Nora had said. Water pressure could be better, but she had other things occupying the bulk of her headspace. She found herself just standing under the flow of water, thinking about all that had happened today. Training and the disaster it turned into were on her mind first, probably because they were the most recent. She wished she could just clear things up with Pyrrha tonight, but it seemed the champion had other plans. 

She groaned in frustration. 

Of course there was also Weiss to deal with. The heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Her twin sister that she’d never met until today. When she first heard of the Schnee Dust Company her father had explained her connection to the family. He’d said that he’d been in love with her mother, though she was trapped in a loveless marriage. She and Weiss had been conceived with different fathers. Later in life she had looked up how that worked, finding it was through a process called ‘Superfecundation’, where two of her mother’s ova were fertilized by separate men. 

She rolled her eyes at the thought of her father being with a woman married to someone else. He and her mother’s irresponsibility had led to her birth though, and most of the time she was pretty happy about that whole ‘being alive’ thing. Didn’t change that a part of her wasn’t thrilled at her father for being involved with such a major case of infidelity. 

Her father had told her that they had smuggled her out of Atlas just hours after her birth. Apparently Jacque Schnee, her mother’s husband, was a world class racist and her mother was too much of a coward to stand up to him when one of her children had been born a faunus. So Ruina had been secreted away and raised alone by her father. Officially, Weiss’ twin had died during childbirth. Officially that child had been a human boy. 

Of course she was neither a human or a boy, though it had taken her several years to realize the latter. She’d been lucky enough to have an incredibly accepting and supportive father, who helped her with the different stages of her transition as she grew up. Social at first, then hormones when she hit adolescence. 

She started working on actually showering now, lathering her hair and ears with shampoo. Showering always got her thinking deeply. It could be the most introspective, depressing, or enlightening experience, depending on where her thoughts and mood took her. 

What was she going to do about Weiss? A small part of her wanted nothing more than to tell her the truth and then maybe… But she was the heiress to her father’s company, the same company that basically enslaved faunus for labor in their dust mines. Telling her she had a faunus twin sister would never  _ really _ work. Sure her semblance could prove it was true, but that didn’t mean that Weiss would just magically be okay with having a faunus sister. Beyond that, her father had always told her that if Jacque Schnee found out about her, he wouldn’t hesitate to have her killed. Even if Weiss  _ was  _ okay with her being a faunus, she couldn’t trust her sister to keep that sort of secret from her father. 

She’d rinsed her hair and ears out now, and moved on to the hefty task of washing her brilliant white tail. Her tail was pretty long, as far as fox-like faunus were concerned, standing up it would reach higher than the tips of her ears. Not that her ears were that big, she’d seen other fox-like faunus with ears twice the size of hers. Her tail was also  _ very _ fluffy and took quite a bit of product to clean properly, she probably went through three or four times as much product as most human women. 

So she couldn’t trust Weiss. Of course it was entirely likely that as a Schnee she was an incurable racist and thus didn’t deserve the time of day. Normally she would just ignore that sort of thing and move on, she didn’t like letting racism get under her skin. She’d prefer to let it go, instead of festering like the White Fang did. In this case though, she couldn’t take that risk. 

Of course, she wasn’t heartless, she really did hate the SDC for what they did to the faunus. As heiress to the SDC she had to at least be somewhat complicit, right? A fair assumption, she thought. So she’d keep her sister at spear length for the sins of the SDC and Jacques Schnee. Was it fair? Maybe not, but it was a safe bet. 

Tail washed, she began to work on her skin, shaving the bits she deemed necessary for today and tomorrow. Next was body wash, applied with her trusty pink floof using a soothing circular motion that left her skin feeling extra sensitive. She enjoyed showers for these little things. She could get lost in the motions and be productive, while helping herself focus on things she needed to think about.

So there’s the Weiss problem squared away, what about Nikos? There were a few times during the day she thought that maybe they would be able to start to reconcile their differences, but after training and …making her cry, she’d probably made things worse. Long minutes passed, just feeling the water rinse her off. She was drawing a blank on ideas, apparently she’d used up all the thinking she was gonna get from this shower on her Weiss problem. Frustrating, but it seemed like Pyrrha wanted to avoid the subject, so she’d just play along with that plan. 

Shower finished and not a trace of the water getting cooler throughout, that was pretty nice. The water pressure wasn’t great, but it was serviceable. She moved on to the rest of her night time routine. Drying off first, of course, then moisturizing her skin and brushing her teeth. Lastly was the big one, brushing her hair and fur out. She decided to finish that part in the room itself, instead of the humid bathroom. 

“Shower’s free.” She called out. 

She pointedly avoided looking Pyrrha in the eyes, even when she walked right past her to take her place in the bathroom. She sat at the corner foot of her bed, trying to keep her still-damp tail off of the bed as much as possible. She opted to start with brushing her hair, because it took less time. Her hair was fairly short, she liked to keep it at a nice bob length, no longer than her chin. In the morning she would use a curling iron to make it flare out a little bit at the bottom. 

Apparently her mood showed, because Nora decided to speak up. 

“I wouldn’t worry about Pyrrha, she’ll come around soon enough. She just has a lot on her mind with …Jaune.” 

She smiled gratefully at the most welcoming member of her team, “Thanks Nora, I hope so.” 

“Your training was very  _ exhaustive. _ ” Ren spoke up after a moment, just soon enough to keep things from being awkward. 

“More like exhaust _ ing _ !” Nora exclaimed with a flop onto her bed, “I haven’t felt this tired since we fought off forty Urai in Hingaru!” 

“It was a dozen.” Ren corrected. 

Ruina chuckled awkwardly, “I ...may have gone a little overboard with you guys. I’ll try to be better.” 

Nora sat up abruptly, “You better not, we can take it!” 

Ren nodded. “It may have been tiring, but we learned a lot.” 

Ruina frowned for a moment before shrugging, “Alright then, that’s good to hear. I think we have a real chance at making this team  _ very _ strong. I bet we could even take the Vytal Tournament.” 

That would be satisfying. Even if Pyrrha was the one to do the finals round, it would feel good for her team to be the winners of the Vytal Tournament. She’d gone without a major tournament win for years now and she missed that satisfaction …that  _ validation _ . It wasn’t the Mistral Regional Tournament, which allowed  _ anyone  _ to enter, but it was a solid second best by pitting the best of the best from the Huntsman Academies against each other. 

“Oh, that would be  _ so cool! _ ” Nora nearly shouted her excitement.

Ren looked pensive for a few moments, but eventually nodded. He had very distinctive nods, she noted. 

“We’ll have to pass our finals first though, I wanna get some studying in before I sleep.” Ruina explained her plan for the night.

Ren gave an approving nod. 

“Ugh, studying is the  _ woooorst! _ ” Nora stood and twirled with her hands on her head before flopping onto her back on her bed once more. 

She giggled at Nora’s antics, “How are you all doing on your studies anyway?” 

Nora just rolled over and buried her face in her mattress. 

“My studies go well. Nora struggles sometimes, however, with some help she manages well.” 

“I assume Nikos still keeps her grades up?” 

Ren nodded. 

“Sounds good then. I’m a bit of a perfectionist on my grades, so if you ever need help with something don’t be afraid to ask for help.” 

Ren smiled gratefully. He would probably appreciate some help tutoring Nora, from the sound of things. 

She finished up her brushing and got back to her studying. After studying until the rest of the team fell asleep she’d go get some solo training in, to really tire herself out and get the dreamless sleep she needed. She felt confident now that she was prepared for anything classes could throw at her tomorrow. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well thanks to the comments I'm posting this a bit early, so I hope you all enjoyed it. Thanks for checking out my fic, it means a lot to me. If you have any questions or just wanna talk about the fic I'd love to hear from you in the comments. Comments give me life.


	3. Chapter 3

Ruina Nivis was prepared for many, many things; this professor was not one of them. Professor, or ‘Doctor’ Oobleck as he insisted they call him, was their History of Remnant instructor. The lanky professor had several very distinct behavioral traits. Most notably was the way he spoke, it was like he was always set at double speed in an online video. She was glad she already knew most of the material from this class, or else it would have been very difficult to take notes at his breakneck speed. Said speed was likely aided by the copious amounts of coffee he drank. In fact, just about the only time he paused his rollercoaster ride of a lecture was to take a drink of coffee from a white mug. 

The lecture itself was interesting, if you could keep up with the professor. Looking around at her classmates, she could see that not many of them were trying that hard to keep up with the professor. Ren seemed to be keeping up, taking notes regularly, but not as fast as one might think for Doctor Oobleck. Weiss was the only other person she recognized that was keeping up as well, and she seemed to be writing notes so fast that Ruina was sure her own hand would cramp if she tried to do the same. A good handful of students were simply not paying any attention, either staring blankly or just plain goofing off. She noted that Nora was one of the latter. 

Interestingly enough the majority of students had adopted a strategy of just reading the relevant chapters from their textbooks. She could see how that would work to get a passing grade, but judging by the extra information that was in the lecture, compared to the textbook, she figured it wouldn’t be a strategy for a ‘good’ grade. The rest of team RWBY seemed to be following this strategy, even their excitable leader. 

“Now then, who remembers why Mantle and Mistral targeted Vacuo in the first place?” Doctor Oobleck asked. 

Ruina smoothly raised her hand, along with a handful of students, including Weiss. 

“Miss Nivis, please.” The professor called on her. 

“They wanted to cut off their enemy’s dust supply, specifically the mines in Northern Vacuo.” She answered plainly. An easy question, but she always made it a point to be able to answer any question from a professor. 

“Excellent. Quite right. I had my concerns on how well you retained the information from your class last year. I’m glad to see they were unfounded. Now…” The professor smoothly moved on to the rest of the lecture. 

Ruina smiled at that. Had he been targeting her with that question to begin with? The rest of the class would have covered that information within the last week, so it would be fresh for them. It made her a little happy if her new professors were taking an interest in her, it was essential to be noteworthy in a professor’s mind in order to get that A+ grade.

She caught Weiss glaring at her from the corner of her eye. That was interesting, she supposed that her initial thoughts on Weiss, to have a study partner on her level, were out of the question. However, the other option was an academic rival. A rival wasn’t truly advantageous, but it could be fun. Ruina was competitive at heart, be it in the arena, in the classroom, or in the bedroom. She scolded herself, no time for bedroom thoughts.

“This particular battle was fought over control of the Shadowfrond Valley mine, known for which type of dust?” Oobleck asked the class. 

Once again her hand went up, this time the only other hand in the air was Weiss.

“Miss Schnee?” 

“Shadowfrond Valley is known for Gravity Dust.” Weiss answered primly. 

“Actually it’s only been known for Gravity Dust in the last twenty years.” Ruina interrupted, “During the Great War it was only known for Burn Dust; the Gravity Dust wasn’t discovered until they had mined out all of the Burn Dust and found Gravity Dust under that.” 

“ _Quite_ correct, Miss Nivis.”

Weiss glared at her even harder this time. Oh, how embarrassing for a _Schnee_ to not know that answer. She sent a wink at Weiss, then had to work hard to stop herself from giggling at Weiss' face turning red. Wait, was that a flirty wink or a taunting wink? It wasn’t intended to be flirty, really. She could stop herself from flirting with every attractive girl around, honest. 

Pyrrha levelled her with a look of disapproval. That made her shrug and look away. She felt… admonished. She didn’t like Pyrrha looking at her like that. Even when she had done some of her worst taunting in the ring, Pyrrha had never given her a look that was anything like that. She frowned and slouched in her chair. 

She didn’t hear the next question from the professor, but she did see Weiss’ hand go up. 

“Miss Schnee, care to redeem yourself?” 

“The strategy for the battle was credited to Captain Stannis, though he would be promoted to Major thanks to their success in this battle.” Weiss answered. 

“Excellent answer, Miss Schnee!” Oobleck praised. 

Weiss sent a smug look her way. 

Ruina seethed and reprimanded herself for not paying enough attention.

The rest of the lecture continued much like that, whenever a difficult question came up it was her and Weiss that were always there with the answer. She couldn’t stop herself from getting competitive with Weiss in this, but she did manage to stop herself from making any more gestures that may or may not be considered flirting. It seemed that was enough to avoid any further looks of disapproval from her red-headed partner, though. 

The bell rang and the professor called out their homework, to read the next chapter and be ready for a quiz at the start of the next day. She chuckled at that, seeing as she had read that chapter last night. The rest of the class was eager to escape their classroom, groans and sighs of relief were plentiful. 

“Freeeeeedoooom.” Nora groaned as they stepped outside of the classroom. 

“I dunno, I thought it was a little exciting.” Ruina smirked. 

“Uugghhh, I didn’t think you were such a _nerd!_ ” Nora said. 

Ren gave Nora an unreadable look. 

Nora had to have seen the look but she seemed to ignore it and that line of conversation was dropped. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Their next class was Grimm Studies with Professor Port. The class as a whole was astonishing in that it managed to do something she hadn’t thought possible, bore her. Professor Port’s style of ‘teaching’ involved starting off a statement of what they would be studying today, then extol the virtues of a huntsman in relation to that, followed by spending the entire rest of the class going off on personal anecdotes about his glory days. 

Prior to this class she had never understood how anyone could fall asleep during class, yet for the first time in her life she felt her eyelids getting heavy as the professor droned on. His words almost seemed to audibly blur, becoming indistinct and rhythmic. She could see that she wasn’t the only one affected this way; all around her she could see other students fighting the same battle that she was. A few seemed to have come prepared, even. Some had a sweatshirt with them that they rolled up to use as a pillow. Others had some clever ideas for hiding that they were sleeping. Nora had several books propped up in front of her to hide behind as she slumped backward. Ruby had pulled the hood of her cloak down so it covered the top half of her face. One student she didn’t know had even brought in a pair of dark sunglasses. 

She spent the next hour and change fighting the battle with sleep, gleaning nothing from the class. When the bell rang for the class she slowly got to her feet and took a long full body stretch. It felt incredible. 

“Okay, what the hell was that? Does he have a sleep semblance or something?” Ruina whined. 

“That would explain _so much._ ” Nora droned. 

“Actually, if you _pay attention_ to his stories they have very useful information.” Pyrrha explained icily. 

“But hoooow?” She groaned, “I’ve never felt bored to tiredness in my life, until now. Are you _sure_ he doesn’t have a sleep semblance?” 

“I find a light meditative state to help.” Ren offered. 

“Coffee.” Nora explained. 

Her eyes widened at Nora. The idea of the hyperactive Nora drinking coffee and having even _more_ energy was honestly somewhat terrifying.

“Only for this class.” Ren reassured her. 

“Oh thank god. I don’t think the world could handle an even _more_ hyperactive Nora.” 

“You mean more _awesome!_ ” Nora grinned, “It’s okay, I know the world couldn’t handle that amount of awesomeness concentrated into one person. I will wield this power with care.” 

Pyrrha giggled, a deep throaty sound that made Ruina shiver. 

She blushed lightly at that, she hoped that her team didn’t notice how her fur stood on end. 

The hell was that? 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Lunch was a fairly awkward affair. Between Weiss and Pyrrha all but ignoring her, Ruina opted to just stay quiet for most of their lunch period. Ruby, Yang and Nora did their best to include her in the conversation, but she just gave the most basic answers she could. Yes, she had already taken these classes last year, so she knew the material. No comment in regards to her being a nerd. Yes, she did think they had a chance at taking the Vytal Tournament. 

Weiss kept to herself, eating a salad of some sort and studying a textbook at the same time. Much like Ruina, she didn’t do much to contribute to the conversation, even going so far as to just huff and ignore any questions she didn’t want to answer. Such as how she felt about having competition in the grades department. Ruina welcomed this, because it was closer to her normal way of handling racists. Maybe they could just avoid each other for the next four years.

Occasionally Ruina caught Ruby giving her sad looks. Did she expect a faunus to get along with a Schnee? She supposed the silver-eyed girl did seem like the naive type. Nora tried to get them to talk too, saying that maybe Ruina and Weiss should organize and lead a study group for the rest of them. Both of them gave non-committal answers, Weiss’ was somewhat judgemental while Ruina’s was more just waffling on the idea. 

Pyrrha was fairly involved with the conversation, so long as the topic didn’t involve Ruina. If it did then Pyrrha suddenly seemed snippy or unwilling to speak. Yang gave her a sympathetic look at this. She shrugged back, she still didn’t have a real plan for the Pyrrha situation. All she could really do was wait until Pyrrha allowed her a chance to apologize. 

All in all, the two teams got along fairly well. They were clearly all friends, except for her, the outsider. However, most of the members made an effort to make her feel like she was one of them. Maybe if she could get this issue with Pyrrha figured out they could have a nice friend group. So what if she and Weiss didn’t talk to each other? That could totally work in a friend group, right? Not everyone had to get along with every other person. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Combat class was the highlight of her day, an entire class devoted to dueling. Dueling was her single greatest passion in life, so being able to spend an entire class indulging in that was an excellent way to end their day of teacher-led classes. The professor for this class was one Glynda Goodwitch. A severe woman who wore her kinks on her sleeve, or boot, as that was where she kept her weapon of choice: A riding crop. 

The format for the class involved the professor choosing students to come to the front and spar in front of everyone, then offering advice on how each combatant could improve. Then she’d spend a few minutes lecturing them on what the rest of the class could take from the duel. She allowed anyone to come to her and request they be in the next match, of which several people chose to do. 

Ruina spent most of the class observing her new classmates to get an idea of how they fought and if any of them were worth seeking out for extra sparring. Of the students she saw fight, she was most impressed by Yang. She didn’t have the best form, but she had a _lot_ of raw power. Now that she saw the blonde woman in her combat outfit she was struck by just how much body confidence she seemed to have. Nora did well too, but she didn’t really seem to take any of her duels seriously. If she could teach Nora to take her duels more seriously she was certain she could make her into a real powerhouse. 

As they got to the end of the class Glynda ended the duel and moved to a central position to grab all of the students attention. 

“Now for our last match of the day I’ve prepared a special ‘exhibition match’, as it were.” The professor looked directly at Ruina, “Would Pyrrha Nikos and Ruina Nivis please come to the arena.” It wasn’t a request. 

Ruina grinned, this was perfect. A chance to really fight Pyrrha for the first time in a year. Their training last night definitely didn’t count, they had both been holding back _a lot_. But first, if she was going to have any chance at winning this match...

“Just like old times, huh?” Ruina smirked at Pyrrha as they stood and started walking down the stairs to the arena. 

Pyrrha didn’t respond audibly, however she could see that the champion was struggling to keep her expression neutral. Good to know she could still get under her old rival’s skin. It would be fun to see who won ‘the game’ after more than a year since their last fight. A small part of her hoped that maybe she could actually win the match, but she tried to reign in that hope. The first two times she’d fought Pyrhha in the Mistral Regional Tournament finals she’d had that hope and it had made her losses hurt that much more. After that they had taken up ‘the game’ during their time together at Sanctum, and it had made her following two losses in the MRT finals hurt much less. 

They took to the arena and stood at opposite ends. Drawing her spear, Schédio, with a flourish she sent a smug smile Pyrrha’s way. Pyrrha narrowed her eyes predictably. It seemed that her usual brand of taunting still worked well, perhaps too well. Maybe Pyrrha’s unhappiness with her taking Jaune’s place was contributing to things. That would be helpful for this fight, though it would probably hurt the team dynamic. Having to think about things like team dynamics was still new and weird for her. Thoughts for later, though, she had a fight to focus on. 

“Game on?” She asked Pyrrha.

Pyrrha gave her a stiff nod, the game was on. 

‘The Game’, as Ruina referred to it, was a bit of a personal competition between herself and Pyrrha. After a few years of regularly sparring at Sanctum it had become clear that Pyrrha was the better fighter. It might not be by a whole lot, but it was _very_ consistent. When they both fought all out Pyrrha won nearly every time. There was _some_ debate in her mind on which of them was truly the better fighter, as ‘all out’ only referred to as far as they were willing to use their semblance in public. She knew that she held back on hers and she strongly suspected that Pyrrha did the same. They both had their own reasons for wanting to hide their semblances, so completely unspoken they came up with ‘the game’. During a match they would see how long they could go without actually using their semblance, whoever used their semblance first was the loser. 

Pyrrha drew Miló and Akoúo̱ with Miló in xiphos form. They both gave Professor Goodwitch a nod to indicate they were ready. 

“The combatants are ready, you may begin when the buzzer sounds.” Goodwitch said. 

Out of the corner of her vision she could see the timer on the display board above them counting down. 

Three.

Two.

One.

BZZZZT

Ruina leaped forward and sent a feint toward Pyrrha’s sword-side shoulder, converting it into a low sweep as she’d originally intended. She wanted to use her superior reach as much as possible. Pyrrha angled Miló to block the feint, then simply hopped over her sweep and inside of her reach. So much for that plan. 

She jerked her spear back with one hand and pushed it into a block with her other, converting it into a flashy spin without thinking. Jumping back to get out of Pyrrha’s reach she simultaneously activated the wind dust in Schédio to both propel herself further back and prevent Pyrrha from following her as easily. It worked to get her the range she wanted, but Pyrrha just smoothly swapped Miló to rifle form and started taking shots at her as she slowly walked forward. 

Forced to block the shots she wasn’t able to back up as quickly as Pyrrha was advancing. She was quickly reaching the edge of the arena so she decided it was time to implement the plan in full. Pyrrha was advancing slowly, so Ruina took the time to bring out the key to winning their game. 

“Just gonna take potshots at me? That’s not very entertaining, what would your sponsors think?” She grinned as more shots ricocheted off her spear. 

Pyrrha, however, didn’t fall for the taunt and continued her slow advance. What was her game? With this slow walk up Ruina would be able to strike at Pyrrha first, using the reach of her spear. It was odd, Pyrrha wasn’t usually this straight forward. What was different? Pyrrha was in her marksman’s pose but something was off, it wasn’t perfect like usual, it was almost sloppy by Pyrrha’s standards. Then she saw it, Pyrrha had Akoúo̱ still attached to her left hand. She was planning something with her shield. 

Pyrrha took the final step into her range and Ruina took the best shot she had, a sword-side rising swipe to try and get at her hip. Pyrrha revealed her plan then and with a smooth motion from Akoúo̱ she batted her swipe down and converted her movement into a full body spin to fling the razor sharp shield at Ruina. 

Dropping to her knees to duck under the shield she brought Schédio back far enough to block Pyrrha’s charging thrust with Miló. She’d managed to avoid Pyrrha’s plan, but now she was on her knees before the gorgeous redhead and at a severe disadvantage. With a swing of wind dust she was able to propel her body into a spin and force Pyrrha to jump back to avoid her spear. She converted the spin into a twirl to get back on her feet and grinned at Pyrrha. She hadn’t had a fight this good in over a year and she had _really_ missed this. 

The clang of metal from behind her told her that Pyrrha’s shield had ricocheted off of the wall just outside of the arena itself. She took a quick glance to see where Akoúo̱ had landed. It seemed to have landed back inside of the arena, a fair bit off to her left. The sound of footfalls in front of her brought her attention back to Pyrrha, charging right at her. 

She’d looked away for just a split second and Pyrrha had taken advantage of that, already managing to get inside of her reach. However she only had her sword right now, so she was able to fend off her attacks. Pyrrha thrust straight toward her neck and she brought Schédio up to block it with the center of the haft. Pyrrha seemed to have anticipated this, however, as she immediately jumped up and kicked off of her spear, launching herself backwards. She’d barely noticed that they had been spinning during that exchange and now she saw why. Pyrrha had backflipped off of her spear to land right next to Akoúo̱.

With the excitement kicking in she went on the offensive with a series of controlled thrusts that were too strong to be batted away easily. Pyrrha swiftly kicked Akoúo̱ up to grab the shield in the air, then met all of her thrusts with her shield and xiphos. Ruina kept up the pressure, not letting Pyrrha do anything but defend. 

Seconds later Pyrrha had recovered fully and with a mecha-shift and a spin she launched both Miló, in Javelin form, and Akoúo̱ at her. It was a very unorthodox attack, leaving herself without a weapon in hand, but it forced Ruina into a desperate dodge and block. However, something else happened, something _very_ unexpected. Her spear resisted being moved into place to block Akoúo̱ and she took a shield to the gut. 

She dropped to her knees for a moment. She hadn’t expected the hit and thus hadn’t braced for it at all. Her aura had taken the hit, but it still had force behind it. This was a shock for another reason though. Pyrrha had used her semblance. She knew for a fact that was the reason she hadn’t gotten her spear into position to block.

She had won ‘the game’. 

As Pyrrha pulled Miló and Akoúo̱ back to her with her semblance she squared up with Ruina, allowing her to get to her feet. She looked focused, _determined_ , but was also pushing herself hard. 

"Nikos, have you gone soft this last year?" Ruina taunted. The rest of the students looked and sounded confused, Ruina was the one who had gotten hit, not Pyrrha. 

Pyrrha's focus cracked, her face twisted into a grimace. She paused and her guard dropped just the tiniest bit. 

_All according to plan._

Ruina leapt forward, feinting toward where the redhead's guard was still strong, but quickly converted the swing into a high thrust to Pyrrha's now open shoulder. ‘The game’ won; she could use her own semblance now, at least in the least obvious way possible. As the tip of her spear reached the unguarded shoulder she activated her semblance for three tiny acceleration glyphs inside of her weapon, simultaneously triggering the water dust and pressure system to create the water cutting jet that tore into Pyrrha’s aura. 

Pyrrha reeled backward from her hit shoulder and spun into a weak stance. The plan was working. Over years of fighting Pyrrha she’d learned that there was only one way to have a chance against her. She had to break her opponent’s not-inconsiderable focus. When she was focused Pyrrha was unstoppable, she didn’t make mistakes and she planned for everything. With her focus broken she was just another huntress-in-training. Still a very talented fighter, but one which Ruina had a pretty good chance at taking down. 

So Ruina learned how to chip away at Pyrrha’s focus. Taunting her was the best way to do so. Pyrrha took fighting, dueling especially, _very seriously_ . Throw in some taunts about the right subjects, like her honor, sportsmanship, or _skill_ and she could sometimes break that focus. 

With that exchange of two hits Ruina’s aura was down to 89%, while Pyrrha’s was down to a shocking 76%. If she could keep this up she had this match in the bag. 

“Not so invincible today, huh?” Ruina teased. She didn’t give Pyrrha a chance to respond, though. Sprinting forward she jumped into a flying thrust to Pyrrha’s shield shoulder. As expected, Pyrrha blocked with her shield, so she converted her stab into a vertical spin to slam the butt of her spear into Pyrrha’s foot. 

Twirling so her back was to Pyrrha she blocked a slash from Miló, then stepped away from Pyrrha. As she stepped away she threw a stab over her shoulder, right into the redhead’s face. Knowing her opportunity to get hits on Pyrrha was limited, she activated her water dust and semblance once again, cutting into Pyrrha’s aura once again. 

She saw some of the other students gasp, so she threw a confident smirk to the crowd. She hadn’t had a match this good in years! This was even better than the last time she fought Pyrrha in the MRT. Her smirk grew to a beaming grin and she twirled Schédio around her body dramatically while twirling back around to her opponent. She could do this, she could win!

Pyrrha was breathing heavily, propping herself up on Miló. A quick glance up told her Pyrrha’s aura was down to 34%. Her own aura was sitting at a comfortable 85%, only having dropped from her semblance usage. A healthy lead, but not a win yet. 

Pyrrha closed her eyes for a moment and her stance became perfect once again. It was at that moment Ruina knew: she fucked up. She’d gotten lost in the rush of enjoying a truly good fight in front of a crowd and she had dropped the only advantage she had. 

Pyrrha rushed toward her and front flipped over the thrust she sent at Pyrrha’s feet. Pyrrha’s foot slammed into her face, snapping her head back and pushing her body with it. She felt something hit Schédio to the side and then further felt it yanked out of her hand by Pyrrha’s semblance. A slash tore across her body at the same time her head impacted the ground. 

The buzzer sounded. 

Just like that, with a single flurry of attacks she had gone from nearly full aura to losing the match. 

“And that concludes the match.” Professor Goodwitch said, “Miss Nivis’ aura has dropped into the red and thus she is unable to continue to fight. Pyrrha Nikos is the victor. A wonderful match, ladies.” 

Ruina groaned. 

She’d lost. She was so, _so_ close to taking a real match off of Pyrrha and she had thrown it away. 

She sat up with her knees together and feet back and to the sides. Professor Goodwitch offered her a smile and a nod. She knew she had done well. In fact that was probably the best she had ever done against Pyrrha. It still smarted to have come so close and still lose. 

“That will conclude class for today. Tomorrow we’ll be focusing on a replay of this match to analyze what our two fighters could have done better and what mistakes they made.” 

Ruina was suddenly very aware of the sounds of their audience. They were loud and excited, and many of them were rushing down to the arena. Leading the pack were Nora and Ruby, both wearing a look of astonishment and awe.

“Ruina! I know you said you went to school with Pyrrha, but you didn’t say you were such a badass!” Nora screeched as she grabbed Ruina under the arms and yanked her to her feet. 

“How did you get so good?! I’ve never seen anyone do so well against Pyrrha!” Ruby squealed while rocking back and forth. 

“She’s right, we’ve never seen anyone get _close_ to that. I’m kinda jealous.” Yang added, eyeing her up and down as she walked up. 

Ruina managed to grin, despite her sore feelings at having lost, it felt good to be recognized as good. There were now a good handful of other students crowding around them, trying to listen in on the conversation. 

“Ah …well. You know how Pyrrha is the winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament, four years running?” 

A chorus of affirmation answered her. 

“Well… I was the runner up, all four of those years.” She finished with an awkward smile. It was an accomplishment, coming in second at the MRT. Full fledged Huntsmen and Huntresses competed in the MRT, even people specifically focused on just dueling. Second place was a big deal …but it wasn’t first, and she wasn’t sure if she’d ever have the opportunity to compete in it again and redeem herself. 

All around them the crowd gasped and whispered in shock and awe. 

“Wow, so you’re like, really good at dueling, huh?” Yang asked. 

She giggled, “Yeah, it’s kind of my passion in life. My goal may be to be a Huntress, protect the world from the grimm and any low lifes that threaten society, but dueling is what I do for fun and what I really pour my heart into.” 

The crowd of people started to press in and she suddenly felt the need to be somewhere else. People were asking her questions and she couldn’t really keep track of all of them, so she decided to make her retreat. 

“Hey um, I’m gonna go get changed, okay?” She didn’t wait for any sort of answer, just darted out the back and between a couple of people toward the locker rooms. Sometimes it was nice to be small.

That was really exciting, even if it got to be a little much there at the end. She supposed that with Pyrrha being a celebrity for a school about fighting, it would make sense that they might actually pay attention to people who were able to fight at her level. 

“...yeah, the fox sure has claws.” She barely heard from up in the stands above the entrance to the locker rooms. 

It sounded like Cardin, spouting his usual racist bullshit. Ah well, not a lot you can do about racists. 

As she entered the locker room she noted the lack of people in there, it was quiet. No one seemed to be using the showers, which wasn’t too surprising with them having showers in their dorm rooms. She certainly wouldn’t be taking a public shower. 

She made her way down the rows of lockers and turned down her row, only to be surprised to see Pyrrha, right in front of her. Pyrrha had a towel wrapped around her and nothing much else that she could see. Looked like she had taken a shower during the excitement with all the other students swarming her. 

“Oh, hey Nikos.” She greeted awkwardly. She could feel her cheeks warming up at the sight before her.

“Hello, Ruina.” Pyrrha answered. 

Yup, awkward. 

“Hey so uh, good fight out there, huh? I thought I had you there for a second.” Small talk, yeah that was a good idea. She realized that Pyrrha hadn’t moved since she came around the corner, nor had she. She was just standing there, awkwardly close to Pyrrha …who was only wearing a towel. Wow, those legs. Wait, bad brain. 

“Oh! Am I in your way? I’m so sorry.” She felt herself blushing as she stepped to the side. Only now did she notice that yes, she had been standing in front of the only open locker in the row. 

Pyrrha didn't answer her, she just moved to her locker and began getting dressed. 

Ruina tore her eyes away, blushing fiercely. What was she doing? This wasn’t like her. She was a strong, confident woman with plenty of experience with attractive ladies. So why was she blushing like a damned virgin? Okay, she could fix this, just focus on something that isn’t dumb, or sexy, or green, or red. Fuck. 

Oh, what if she tried to do the thing now?

“Hey uh, Nikos?” 

No answer. 

“Look, I just wanted to apologize for what I said last night.” She sat down on the bench in the middle of the lockers, facing away from Pyrrha, “I don’t know Jaune and haven’t actually heard that much about him, so it was rude of me to judge him so quickly.” 

The sound of Pyrrha changing had stopped, but the locker hadn’t closed, maybe Pyrrha had stopped to listen to her?

“I want to do right by this team. I want us to be the best that we can be. I know I was kinda pushed in to take his place, but I swear I didn’t do it maliciously. I just want to be a Huntress and this …was my only chance.

“When I realized that I couldn’t just continue my training at Haven anymore I looked into transferring to another academy. However, the academies all have a very strict four person team rule. There were no other second year teams at any of the academies that had an open spot. In fact there was only one team in any grade that had an open spot …yours.

“So please believe me when I say that _this team is important to me_. This is my only chance at my goal to become a Huntress. To that end I want to make this right, I don’t want to just come in here and trash talk your first leader.” 

A long moment passed. Was Pyrrha still here? She focused her hearing… yes, she could hear Pyrrha breathing behind her. 

“Apology accepted.” Pyrrha answered. 

Ruina jumped up and twirled around to look at Pyrrha. She was dressed in her school uniform once again and giving her the most raw, compassionate look that Ruina had _ever_ seen. 

“I would like to apologize, myself.” 

“Wait, what? What for?” 

“I have been treating you… unfairly. A part of me blamed you for Jaune being expelled, and I’m sorry for that and how I treated you due to that.” 

Ruina blinked. 

Was she serious? How could she be this nice after what she had said about Jaune? Especially considering that she had a crush on him. This was just crazy. Nikos was too nice, just _way_ too nice. 

“Ah, mmmm… no worries. Maybe we can just move past all this? I’d like it if we could put our old rivalry aside, too. I think we’d be much better teammates if we did, and maybe even… friends?” She smiled awkwardly, hopefully. 

“I’d like that very much.” Pyrrha answered with a smile and a nod, “Perhaps sometime we could have a spar behind closed doors. To truly try our hardest, without any holding back.” 

Ruina grinned, “You know I’m always up for a tussle behind closed doors, Nikos.” 

Pyrrha blinked. Then a blush started to work it’s way up her neck and over her face. 

Shit, why had she said that? She kept telling herself she was here to study and become a huntress, not get distracted by pretty girls! Why wouldn’t her mouth just listen?

“Ah, um, sorry. That was a bit much.” She scratched at the back of her head awkwardly. 

“Um… right. I’ll be heading back to the dorm now.” Pyrrha answered before beating a hasty retreat. 

Awkward, awkward, awkward. 

She set herself the task of towelling off any gross sweat and freshening herself with a bit of deodorant. Just enough to make it back to the dorm bathroom for a private shower. The whole time she berated herself for flirting with Pyrrha like that. She’d never really thought of Pyrrha like that before, she was just her nigh-insurmountable rival, not a girl to do anything like that with. Ugh, two steps forward, one step back. 

Once she had freshened up she made to escape from the locker room and all of the awkwardness that was now tied to it. Get back to the dorm, take a shower, get ready for team training self studies. She had a plan and she was going to stick to it. No more awkward encounters. 

Stepping out of the locker room felt really good. There’s always something about locker rooms that just made her feel gross. Maybe they were always just kinda muggy, but the air felt much nicer out in the hallways. 

Speaking of hallways, this one had a surprise for her. 

Weiss Schnee. 

Her sister was waiting just outside of the door to the locker room and upon seeing her fixed her with a withering glare. 

“Ruina Nivis. _That_ was deplorable!” Weiss admonished her with a pointed finger. 

“I- what?” 

“Don’t think I didn’t see what you did in there. Taunting Pyrrha, getting under her skin, breaking her concentration like that. It was disgraceful!” 

“Excuse you and your entire family?” She quirked an eyebrow at the audacity of this girl.

Weiss huffed and turned her nose up at that, “A true duelist should strive to fight their opponent at their best. Trying to sabotage your opponent by tearing them down mentally and emotionally like that? It’s the way of a coward!” 

“Oh, you did _not_ just call me a coward.” 

“I most certainly did. You do no credit to your lineage like this! You may have done well in your match, but it was only due to dirty tricks and subterfuge!” 

“Oh my god, are you even listening to yourself right now?” Ruina was mad, she’d seen Weiss fight today and she didn’t deserve this from a second-rate duelist like her, “You know what? Fuck you Schnee, I’m out of here.” She turned to stalk away from Weiss. 

She heard Weiss huff once more and repeat something about her being a coward, but she mentally tuned her out. 

This sucked. Two steps forward and now two steps back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you thought of the fight scene in the comments!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guess who's not dead? Me! Apologies for the hiatus but my personal life demanded more of my attention, so writing got dropped for a bit. I've got a couple chapters that were already written for this story, so you'll see another update or two here soon. I'm hoping I'll be able to get back into writing as I edit and post these chapters. Thanks for checking out my story!

After clearing out some of the stress and rough edges of Ruina joining team RRVN, time spent with them went much smoother and was altogether more enjoyable for all of them. Ren was, in fact, always on the quiet side, but Ruina liked to think of it as ‘serene’. Pyrrha became a solid rock of stability and general friendliness. Nora was excitable, fun and just  _ so _ passionate about everything she did. Today Nora was bringing that very passion to their first session of working on Ruina’s strength training. 

“Come on girl, just five more reps, you can do this!” Nora shouted encouragement. 

Currently she had Ruina laying down on a weight bench, pushing up a weight in each hand. The weights were cold metal and much heavier than she expected. Nora assured her that she knew what she was doing when selecting the right amount of weight for her. This was her second set, of three planned, and she was definitely feeling the strain. Gritting her teeth she pushed through the strain to bang out her last five reps. 

“There you go!” Nora cheered her on while grabbing the weights from her. 

Ruina continued to lay there for a few seconds before sitting up and accepting the bottle of water that Nora offered her. She smiled in thanks. 

“Now catch your breath, so I can push you _even_ _harder_!” Nora cackled. 

She had a guess that Nora was getting some enjoyment out of pushing her hard on this, probably because of how hard she had been pushing Nora and the rest of the team in their combat training over the last few days. The day she made up with Pyrrha they had all sat down and talked about the team training regimen. Surprisingly, Ren and Nora had been very enthusiastic about pushing hard on training. Pyrrha had accepted the plan with no complaints, she was always happy with more training. So they had hashed out a plan to train for two hours after they got out of classes, followed by another two hours of training after dinner. 

Of course that plan was just for the team. Ruina needed more to keep herself going. More specifically she needed more training to truly exhaust herself. So after they had all done their studying and homework and gone to bed, she would sneak out to do another few hours of training until she was too exhausted to think. Following that she would drag herself back to the dorm to grab a few hours of sleep before waking up in the morning to do it all again. 

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late.” Yang called amid the sound of the gym door opening and closing. 

“Girls.” Nora corrected, “What took you so long, ya slowpoke?” 

“Ah, my bad.” Yang scratched the back of her neck, “I just couldn’t get away from Weiss. She made us all finish that essay that Port assigned us today.” 

“The same day it was assigned? Wow, even I’m not that harsh of a taskmaster. Schnees, huh?” Ruina said.

“Nah, she’s not that bad. She just cares about grades a lot.” Yang moved to grab some weights for herself, “I actually think it’s some holdover from her family. I get the feeling they have some pretty high expectations for her.” 

Nora elbowed her, “See? She’s not that bad, she just has a  _ craaaaazy _ family.”

Ruina rolled her eyes. They had no idea how crazy her family was. She moved to take the position to start another exercise, something called a bent-over row. Beside her Nora nodded in approval. 

“Must be nice to have a teammate to work out with, I can’t get anyone on team RWBY to join me at the gym.” Yang commented, looking their way. 

“I think it will be-” Ruina huffed around her rows, “providing Nora can keep up with me.” 

“Oh, you did  _ not  _ just challenge me to a gym-off, miss twigs-for-arms.” 

“I’m just saying, I don’t see you going to the gym twice a day, and that’s my plan.” Ruina smirked at Nora. 

“Hah! You may put in six hours of training a day, but you are not ready for two gym sessions a day. I’m gonna bury you, little girl.” Nora grinned back. 

Ruina rolled her eyes and moved on to her next exercise, “You’re only an inch taller than me.” 

“Wow, your team is hardcore.” Yang said with a chuckle, while also moving on to another exercise, “Oh hey, you never answered the other day, what’s your new team name, anyway?” 

“Team RRVN!” Nora proudly exclaimed. 

There was a loud thumping sound as Yang dropped the weights she had been lifting and did a double take at Nora. 

“Raven?” Yang asked, she looked oddly surprised. 

“Yeah. I dunno, I’ve heard worse team names.” Ruina answered with a shrug. 

“You  _ do  _ know what a raven is, right?” Nora asked, curiously. 

Yang laughed awkwardly, “Of course! Just a weird name is all, don’t worry about it.” 

As Yang bent over to grab her weights again, Nora and Ruina shot each other a curious glance before shrugging. 

“Alright, enough slacking! You’ve still got three more exercises in this set, get to it twig girl!” Nora commanded. 

Ruina huffed her annoyance, but got back to her workout. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


“What’s this stuff called again?” Ruina asked around a mouthful of stew. 

After their workout Yang and Nora had taken her to the common room for their dorm. Apparently Ren was cooking something for them to eat, to go along with their workout. They’d arrived to find Ren wearing her girls uniform and a pink apron which read: ‘please do nothing to the cook’, showing it was now a ‘girl day’. She was cooking something in a massive stew pot and quickly dished it up for everyone there. It smelled delicious and tasted even better. It was some sort of stew with just about every form of protein she could imagine. 

“Chanko Nabe.” Ren answered, “It’s a traditional east Mistralian stew used to promote weight and muscle growth. Proper nutrition is half the battle when it comes to training the body.” 

“God, it’s delicious.” Ruina groaned. 

“Right?! Ren makes the best food. Between my workout routine and her cooking, we’ll get you all the muscle you want!” Nora grinned proudly. 

Ruina chuckled. Just another thing where Ren and Nora complimented each other perfectly. Those two were made for each other. 

“She’s not wrong. If you can actually stick to that crazy schedule of yours, you’re gonna see those gains real soon.” Yang added after finishing her second bowl. 

“Can you cook a huge batch of this so I can reheat it after my workouts?” Ruina asked.

“Of course. Don’t be afraid to ask for more whenever you want, cooking is one of my passions.” Ren answered flatly.

“Thanks Ren.” She smiled. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


“So fuuuuull!” Nora bemoaned her mistakes. 

The girl had eaten five full bowls of chanko nabe and was living to regret it. After a delicious supper they were heading back to their dorm room to get any studying they needed done before going to bed. Or in Ruina’s case, before going out for more solo training. 

“Maybe you shouldn’t have challenged Yang to an eating contest then.” Ruina teased. 

Yang groaned. She may have lost, but she still put away four bowls herself. 

“It. Was. Worth it.” 

“I’m going straight to bed.” Yang sounded like she had regrets. She quickly swiped her scroll over the reader by her dorm door, “Night girls.” 

“Night Yang, good luuuck.” Ruina smiled and waved to one of her many new friends. 

“Night  _ loser _ .” Nora teased. 

“Sleep well.” Ren bid her. 

Ruina swiped her own scroll over their reader and led the way into their own dorm room. Pyrrha was sitting at her desk, studying, it would seem. In the last week she had learned that Pyrrha wasn’t  _ all  _ natural talent. The redhead had a fair amount of studying she had to do, to keep her grades up. She was still very smart, she just wasn’t quite the gifted warrior that she was in the arena. 

“Hello again.” Pyrrha greeted them with a smile. 

“Hey Nikos.” 

Nora groaned before flopping into the chair at her own desk. 

Ren just nodded her greeting.

Pyrrha looked at her in confusion. 

“Nora challenged Yang to an eating contest, she ate five bowls.” Ruina answered, sitting down at her desk and pulling out her Grimm Anatomy textbook. 

“Well, five bowls doesn’t seem like that much, for Nora.” Pyrrha still sounded skeptical. 

“It is when it’s Ren’s Chanko Nabe…” Nora moaned. 

“Oh my.”

“Yyyyuuuupp.” 

“And now I have to do homework… Ren, give me your gun, it’s time to end it all.” Nora flopped over the back of her chair, dramatically. 

“No suicide jokes, Nora.” Ren admonished flatly. 

“Awwww…” 

Ruina glanced at Pyrrha and the two shared a silent, hidden chuckle.

Shaking her head at Nora’s antics, she turned to address her homework. She needed to write a short essay on how to fight a Giant Nevermore, including ways to exploit weaknesses and how she might do it with an improvised weapon. Professor Port had a fondness for working with improvised weapons, as evidenced by his many stories, where he was frequently lacking his own weapon. Maybe he was just really bad at keeping his on hand?

“You know, I was thinking…” Pyrrha began, grabbing her attention, “with next week being the week before finals, we’re going to have to study extra hard.” 

“Yeah, definitely.” 

“Well, with that in mind, perhaps we could do something fun this weekend? Some sort of team bonding exercise? 

Ruina frowned. Something fun? She hadn’t done anything purely for fun since… 

“Oh! I didn’t mean to overstep or anything… I simply thought that with how hard we’ve been training that we could use a break, for team morale.”

Team morale. Right that was a thing she was supposed to take care of. Damned leader duties. Nora and Ren, especially, had been worked hard this last week. They deserved a break, at least. 

“No no, you’re good, I could use all the help I can get with this whole team leader thing.” She sighed, “Team bonding, huh?” 

The gears began turning in her head. Ozpin had her on an errand in Vale on Friday, she could make a pit stop while she was there. Maybe there was something she could do to allow her team their fun, without risking her thoughts from spiralling to the past. 

“Alright let’s do it. Just don’t forget that this was your idea.” She smirked at Pyrrha. 

Pyrrha looked back at her with fear and worry. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


The sound of a pen gliding over paper rapidly was currently the only sound of note in team RWBY’s dorm. Weiss Schnee sat at her desk, writing an essay for her History of Remnant class. The essay was extra credit, so she didn’t have to pull any of her indolent teammates along to work with her. Finals were approaching fast and she intended to have her grade as high as possible before she had to set herself the task of studying diligently for finals this coming week. 

It was Friday afternoon and she had the dorm to herself. Yang was out in Vale getting up to gods only knew what. Blake was in the library, again. Likely searching for any information she could find on the dust thefts that were plaguing Vale or any information on the White Fang. Ever since their ...miscommunication and the subsequent  _ explosive _ incident at the docks, her recently revealed faunus teammate had been tirelessly working to find any information pertaining to Roman Torchwick or the White Fang. 

She didn’t actually know where Ruby was. Perhaps spending time with JNPR? Or rather, time with RRVN. She suppressed a frown at that thought, she didn’t like to dwell on thoughts of that team. Thoughts about that team inevitably led to thoughts about their new faunus leader. She didn’t want to think about the frustrating white haired girl, she really didn’t. Instead she tightened her focus on her essay, like she should be doing. 

The sound of the door opening interrupted the soothing quiet of the room as Ruby trudged into the room, jumping onto that deathtrap she called a bed. She didn’t say anything to Weiss as she passed, which was very ...peculiar. Ruby was always the type to greet her whenever they met. 

A loud, dejected sigh came from Ruby’s bed. 

Weiss frowned. Very peculiar indeed. 

She returned to writing her essay, this extra credit wasn’t going to complete itself. She had standards to meet and a small distraction like this was  _ not  _ going to stop her from getting top marks in this class. Now then, the Battle of Black Sands was notable for the incredible flood of grimm that interrupted it, forcing the humans involved to… 

Another dejected sigh from Ruby’s bed interrupted her thoughts. 

That dolt. 

Should she say something? She wasn’t generally the one to help with these sorts of problems, that was really more of a Yang thing, or Ruby herself. She really wasn’t suited to these interpersonal problems. Not that she couldn’t be if she put her mind to it, but she just hadn’t been exposed to that many ...well, people. People that she cared about, that is. She should say something, Ruby was her partner ...and maybe a friend. She didn’t have a lot of experience with those either, so she wasn’t sure about the last. What should she say though? 

A loud rustle from Ruby’s bunk, this time. The slight groan of the ropes as it shifted. She was probably rolling over in distress this time. Time to intervene. 

“What is it, you dolt?” She asked, turning to look at her partner. 

Ruby sat up in her bed with a jerk. 

“Oh. Hey Weiss, I didn’t see you there.” She sounded sad. 

“Yes, well, you seemed to be quite distracted. Now what is going on with you?” 

Ruby looked away from her in embarrassment, “It’s nothing, don’t worry about me.” 

Weiss rolled her eyes, “Ruby Rose, you have been rolling around in bed, sighing in a way that clearly shows something is wrong. So tell me, what is it?” 

Ruby sighed, still looking away from her, “...It’s Jaune.” 

Weiss simply crossed her arms and ankles, waiting for Ruby to continue. 

“I just can't help but feel like there should have been something we could have done to help him.” 

Weiss frowned. Jaune Arc had been expelled when Cardin Winchester had revealed that he had forged his transcripts to gain entry into Beacon Academy. That claim, combined with the boy’s clear lack of experience had been enough to spur an investigation and subsequently prove the claim true. It was a bit jarring to see one of her classmates expelled so quickly, but she couldn’t help but agree that he didn’t belong here. 

“Ruby… I know you were friends with him, but he clearly didn’t have the necessary skills to make it here.” She leaned her head back as a thought came to her mind, “I think if he had stayed it was very possible he would have been seriously injured, or worse. This is probably for the best.”    
Ruby looked like she wanted to argue that point, opening her mouth with a raised finger, but a moment later she closed her mouth and just looked very uncomfortable. She understood well enough, finding a logical reason to refute that was difficult. Jaune Arc simply didn’t seem to be cut out to be a huntsman. 

“However, his expulsion did lead to some …less than pleasant changes in their team composition.” She added after a moment. 

Ruby perked up a bit at that, “Hey, what’s the deal with you and Ruina anyway?” 

Weiss scoffed, “She hates me because she’s a faunus and I’m a Schnee. She even told me so herself.” 

Memories of Ruina’s voice from that moment came to her unbidden. The way she asked Weiss to release her arm. She’d sounded so fragile in that moment. Then the way she looked at her and admitted to the reason for her hatred. She’d felt guilt at that, even if it was out of her control. Then the way she had told Weiss to leave her alone, and used that nickname. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about that. 

“But you’re not even like that!” Ruby turned to sit with her legs hanging off the bed, “You even have a faunus teammate. Can’t you just tell her that you’re not involved with your dad’s company?” 

“Hmph. As if it were that simple. Blake may be willing to accept that I’m not my father, but it’s simply unreasonable to expect all faunus to do the same.” 

Now Ruby looked sad again, “Are you sure?” She asked, “You two are so alike, I think you’d really get along if you got past this.” 

“Excuse me? I am nothing like that uncouth ruffian.” Weiss glared at Ruby. How dare she imply that she was anything like  _ Ruina Nivis. _

“I mean, you’re both really smart and really good fighters. Plus you have the same color hair!” Ruby’s tone had quickly turned from sad to cheerful, typical Ruby. 

Weiss rolled her eyes and pointedly looked away from her partner, “Please. Just because we have the same color hair doesn’t mean we’re anything alike as people. Ruina Nivis is an underhanded fighter with no sense of honor or integrity. Two things that I consider to be very important traits.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


Ruina kicked open the door to her dorm, “Sup kids, we’re playing Truth or Dare- with shots!” She wiggled the bottles of alcohol gripped in her hands, “And before you ask, it was Nikos’ idea.” 

Nora’s whole face lit up with excitement, “YES!” 

Pyrrha looked at her, aghast. 

Ren looked …scared? Now  _ she _ was kind of scared. Too late now. 

Ruina set the bottles on the ground, then closed the door before moving to her stuff. Rifling around inside of her suitcase she found what she was looking for, four shot glasses. Her thoughts began to turn toward the last time she used them, so she quickly quashed them and moved to sit by the bottles. 

“Alright, sit down, come on. Rules are simple, it’s normal Truth or Dare, but you can take a shot to skip answering any question or doing any dare. Dare’s can’t unreasonably stall the game and have to be immediately actionable. No duplicate dares or questions to the same person.” 

Pyrrha sat down to her left, looking a little nervous, but didn’t voice any objection. Nora sat to her right and Ren between Pyrrha and Nora. Nora looked eagerly at the booze, while Ren just looked resigned to her fate.

“Alright, so we’ve got vodka, dragon berry rum, wildfire whiskey, and one of my favorites, tarantula blue tequila.” She motioned to each bottle in turn, “Pick your poison.” she singsonged as she passed around the shot glasses. 

Nora went straight for the wildfire with a laugh that honestly worried Ruina a little bit. Ren sighed and quickly poured himself a shot of rum. Ruina poured herself a shot of tequila before looking to Pyrrha. 

Pyrrha seemed very …indecisive. She was looking at the alcohol with a sort of wariness, like she didn’t trust it or…

“Oh my god, Nikos, have you never drank before?” She gaped. 

“Well, I am underage and my family would never approve… and if the sponsors had ever gotten word of it…” Pyrrha looked definitively embarrassed. 

Nora squealed in excitement, “Ohhhh! This is gonna be so fun, getting you drunk for your first time!” 

“Okay okay, so-” She stood up on her knees to gesture toward the bottles in the middle, “the vodka is kinda your baseline here, it’s pretty plain alcohol. The rum will be a bit fruity and the sweetest option. Wildfire is sorta cinnamon-y and hot. Then you’ve got tarantula, which is kinda citrusy.” She sat back down with her legs crossed wide, “They’re all about the same alcohol content, so pick what sounds like it would taste the best.” 

Pyrrha gingerly reached forward for the vodka and poured herself a shot. 

“Alright. Nora, you were the first to pour yourself a shot, so you go first.” 

“Hahaha! Ruina! Truth! Or  _ dare?! _ ” Nora dramatically exclaimed. 

Ruina giggled, “Let’s start with truth.” 

“Awwwww…” Nora whined, “Well then, who do you think is the hottest person at Beacon?” 

Ruina swallowed heavily, “Uhhh, lemme think…” 

There were a lot of really attractive people at beacon. As you might expect from a school that trained people on the cusp of adulthood into warriors. They were nearly all in impeccable shape, and she rather liked people who were in good shape. But who among them did she find most attractive? She wrote off the teachers right away, age gaps were not her thing. She’d mostly interacted with her team and RWBY, so those were the easy ones to start off with. 

Okay, Ruby? More cute than hot. Nora? Also more on the cute side, but sometimes pretty hot, especially in the gym. Pyrrha? Very very hot, but awkward to admit it. Ren? Has the potential to be hot, but doesn’t embrace the style. Yang? Definitely hot. Blake? Unconsciously hot, for sure. Who else was there? Oh. Weiss. Oooookay, same as Pyrrha, very hot, but also awkward to admit. Borderline illegal to admit, even. So the answer was either Pyrrha or Weiss. 

Ruina blushed and looked at Nora in embarrassment, then took a shot. 

Nora just cackled in glee. 

“Whew, that burns more than I remember. Let’s see, Ren, truth or dare!” 

“Dare, please.” 

That surprised her. She had pegged Ren for a truth-every-time kinda girl. Apparently there was more going on with her than she thought. Hmmm, what was a good dare?

Forcing her to do something with Nora was out, she wasn’t about to screw with whatever relationship they had going on. 

“I dare you to wear Nora’s combat outfit for the rest of the game.” 

Ren blinked in surprise, but turned to Nora inquisitively. 

Nora squealed, “YEESSSS!! Come on, come on!” 

Nora had jumped to her feet and dragged Ren into the walk-in closet, shutting the door behind them. The sounds coming from the closet were somewhat concerning, but she put that out of her mind. This was fine. Soon enough there was a cry of victory from within the closet, followed by Nora bounding out. 

Behind Nora came a cute and embarrassed looking Ren, wearing Nora’s combat outfit, which was definitely a bit small on the black haired girl. They’d done something to make her fill out the chest, which looked really good on her. 

“Hey, that’s a cute look, way to go.” She smiled at Ren. 

Ren carefully sat down again and offered her a nervous smile in return. 

“Alright, Pyrrha, you’re up!” She added. She could feel her body heating up from the shot she had taken. 

“Well, I suppose it’s only fair that it should be Nora. Truth or dare?”   
  
Nora grinned, “Always a dare here!”

“I dare you to…” Pyrrha placed a finger on her lips as she thought, “...take off Ruina’s socks. With your teeth.” 

Ruina blinked with surprise as she looked at Pyrrha. She’d never expected something so …kinky from her. Pyrrha just beamed with pride. 

“Ohohohoho, you are  _ on! _ ” Nora cried before kneeling down on all fours. 

Nora crawled toward her slowly, sinuously, her eyes locked onto her own. She’d never expected Nora to be able to turn on that sort of… well to be frank, sexiness. She moved like water, flowing smoothly toward her. Ruina couldn’t help leaning back and pulling in a sharp breath, she did  _ not  _ expect this at all. 

Leaning back had the unintended effect of presenting her feet for Nora, who smoothly dipped her head down to bite her stocking, between the big toe and it’s neighbor. As Nora began to slowly pull her stocking down and off she couldn’t help shuddering at the feel of it sliding over her leg. The heat from that shot was really getting to her now. The rest of the room was silent as Nora finished pulling off her stocking. The air on her skin didn’t feel at all cool enough, as she curled her leg and foot back and away from Nora.

The following sock removal was less intense, as she managed to get her breathing under control. She still felt incredibly hot under the collar and wished that she wasn’t wearing her uniform. Pulling her eyes away from Nora, they landed on Pyrrha. The redhead was staring at her, which only made her blush harder. Yeah, this was awkward now. 

Nora finished removing her sock and sat back on her feet, “Haha! Betcha weren’t expecting  _ that! _ ”

Ruina heaved a sigh of relief. Not here for distractions, this was just for team morale. Yes her teammates were all very attractive, but that wasn’t what they were here for. She was just here to learn. Get better, prove her worth, help people, protect the people she cared about. 

“You’re up Ren!” Nora beamed at her partner. 

“Nora. I dare you to drink my herbal health smoothie in the common room refrigerator.” 

“Noooooooo!!” Nora cried, grabbing Ren by her collar. “How could you do this to me?!” 

Ren just let herself be jostled around, not trying to fight back at all. 

“Hold on, she didn’t answer the initial question of ‘Truth or dare’.” Pyrrha pointed out. 

Nora let go of Ren and slumped, “I was gonna choose dare anyway, Ren knows that.” 

Ren nodded with a small smile, “You are predictable like that.”

Nora groaned as she got up and trudged to the door. However, as her hand moved to the door handle she suddenly stopped. Whirling around she dove for her shot glass before downing it in one go. 

“Oh my god, I can’t believe I almost forgot I could do that! Oh this is  _ so  _ much better than your herbal smoothie.” Nora sighed her relief and got back to her position around the circle. “Oh! That makes it my turn! Okay, Pyrrha, truth or dare?”

Pyrrha was finishing up laughing at Nora’s antics, “I  _ think _ I’ll choose truth for this one.” 

“All you fuddy duddies with your truths…” Nora sulked, “I’ll make you regret that choice though!” She cried with a dramatic accusatory finger. “Alright Pyrrha, do you like girls?”

Pyrrha lit up bright red as her eyes moved from looking at one girl in the room to the other. After a long moment of quiet she reached forward and took her first shot ever. The reaction was immediate. Her eyes went wide and she began coughing and clutching at her throat, but quickly got things under control. That is, if under control meant panting heavily. 

Ruina couldn’t hold back her laughter at Pyrrha’s complete and total failure to handle alcohol. The idea that she could have trouble with something as simple as a shot was just too much for her to handle as her laughter moved to silent gasps and a struggle to breathe. She could hear Nora cracking up beside her and even caught a glimpse of Ren cracking a smirk. 

“Gods,  _ why _ do people drink this  _ willingly?! _ ” Pyrrha gasped. 

And with that the laughter continued on, even pulling Pyrrha and Ren into it with them. The room now a cacophony of teenage laughter.

It was at least five minutes before any of them managed to stop laughing. Predictably Ren was the first, managing to slow her giggles, spacing them out more and more until her laughter stopped. A smile remained however. A minute later the other three girls managed to get control of themselves, wiping tears from their eyes and massaging sore jaws. 

“W-well, at least we kn-know… “ Ruina stammered, barely suppressing another fit of giggling, “the answer to the que-question.”

Nora snorted, but managed to stop herself from breaking down again, though it looked to be a struggle. Pyrrha, however, broke into a deep red blush. It was adorable. 

“Okay. Ooookay. My turn, and I’m  _ not _ sorry for this, truth or dare Nikos?” Ruina grinned at Pyrrha. 

“Oh, that is  _ cruel! _ ” Nora called out. 

“Oh and before you forget, make sure to pour yourself another shot. Maybe the rum? It’s very sweet and smooth.” Ruina added. 

Pyrrha sighed and shuffled forward, pouring herself a shot of the rum, “Perhaps a dare would be a better idea.” 

“Ohohoho, wrong answer girly. Dare you to take your top off.” Ruina grinned. 

“YES!!” Nora screamed.   
  
Pyrrha’s eyes bulged as she looked from Ruina to the shot of rum she had just poured. A long moment of consideration passed. Various emotions played across Pyrrha’s face; fear, sadness, pain, and a sort of wilting. Eventually her face settled to determination and she grabbed her shot glass and downed it. This time the effect was much reduced, merely a grimace followed by a shudder. 

Nora whined.

Ruina had really expected Pyrrha to take the dare. She didn’t imagine that the invincible girl would have issues showing off her bra, considering what her combat outfit consisted of. Then there were those emotions she saw play out, something felt off… though maybe it was just the alcohol. 

“Alright then, your turn again, Nikos.” 

The game continued on and the four of them got more and more drunk. They did their fair share of following through with dares and questions, but there were still enough things they didn’t want to do that they kept taking shots. Ruina was definitely feeling the effects. Her head was swimming and she was extremely warm, despite only wearing her bra for a top; thanks to a dare from Nora. The ginger girl seemed to want to get everyone naked.

“Dare.” Ruina answered Nora. 

Nora grinned wickedly, “I dare you to knock on team RWBY’s door, kiss the first girl you see, then jump out their window!” 

“Nora…” Ren began to admonish her. 

“Deal!” She answered with a grin. 

She jumped to her feet and immediately felt her balance leave her. She stumbled to the wall, hitting it hard enough that she could feel her aura drop a bit. Whoops. Okay, focus up a bit, just a little bit of a walk, a kiss and then a jump out of a window. No big deal. 

She managed to get their door open on her second try, then stumbled across the hallway with a giggle. She knocked on the door and took a moment to think. Who was gonna answer the door? Who was she gonna kiss? Oh jeez, what if it was Weiss? That would be a mess. She giggled at the thought. 

“Ruina?” a confused voice asked as she focused her eyes on the now open door. 

Ruby stood in front of her, dressed in her pajamas, a cute black tank top and white pants with something red dotted on them. Her eyes were wide and she was blushing fiercely as she seemed to try not to stare at Ruina bra-clad breasts. Hah, adorkable. Oh right she had come here for a reason, huh? Okay, time to do the thing! 

“Hey Ruby, don’t mind me just gotta… “ she leaned forward, like she was looking over Ruby’s shoulder, but at the last moment turned her head and pressed a quick peck to Ruby’s lips. Or at least she was pretty sure it was her lips. She didn’t wait to double check, pushing past Ruby quickly and running full tilt toward the window. Without thinking she flicked her hand and triggered a tiny propulsion glyph on the window, flinging it open. Then with an aura enhanced jump she was clear and through the window. 

  
  


* * *

  
  
“What the hell!?” Yang screamed. 

Weiss completely agreed. Seconds ago Ruina Nivis had knocked on their door, wearing only a bra above the waist, only to  _ kiss _ Ruby and then jump out of  _ their  _ window. Ruby was still standing in the doorway, still as a statue. Yang seemed to be fuming, but at a complete loss for what to do. Her hair was glowing and her eyes were red, a sure sign she was upset. Blake had sat up straight when Ruina started running through their room and now seemed to be blending surprise and amusement in equal measure. 

“Did she just fucking  _ kiss _ Ruby?” Yang seethed. 

“Looked like it to me.” Blake answered. 

Weiss got up from her bed to look out the window. There was no sign of the unscrupulous girl in the dark of night. She turned to tell Yang as much, but instead her eyes caught on three heads peeking out from the doorway across the hall. Ruby was still standing still, though now she had a hand raised to her face, probably her lips. However, she could still recognize the faces of Pyrrha, Ren and Nora across the hall. She raised a challenging eyebrow at them. 

“Hello again!” Pyrrha greeted them with a hint of embarrassment in her voice.

“Pyrrha, what the hell was that?” Yang glared at their resident champion. 

Pyrrha now looked embarrassed as well, “Um, well I suppose it was a …dare? Nora dared Ruina to kiss the first girl to answer the door and jump out your window.” 

“And  _ why  _ would she do that? Either of them; why would Ruina accept, even?” Weiss asked. 

“ _ Becaaaauuuse  _ we’re playing Truth or Shots and Ruina is already five shots in!” Nora answered. She suddenly noticed that Nora was topless as well. What the hell was going on over there? What was Truth or Shots?

“Oh shit, that explains things.” Yang was …suddenly not angry anymore. How? 

“What  _ exactly  _ does that explain? What is Truth or Shots and how are you not angry anymore? Need I remind you that she just stole a kiss from your  _ sister _ .” 

“And she’s  _ going _ to get a talking to about that, along with Nora. About how we don’t kiss people without their consent.” Yang said with a pointed look at Nora, who had the grace to look embarrassed, “As for Truth or Shots… Do you know what Truth or Dare is, Ice Queen?” 

“...No?” Weiss pursed her lips. 

“Ah, I shoulda known that. It’s a game where you go around in a circle and ask someone else if they want a truth or a dare. For truth they answer a question of your choice and for a dare they do something that you tell them to do. Bet you’d enjoy it, actually.” Yang grinned at her. She most definitely would  _ not _ enjoy someone prying into her past, or telling her what to do, “The shots make it so you can take a shot of alcohol to avoid answering a question or doing a dare.” 

Alcohol. Of course that was the cause of this nonsense. She sighed as memories of her mother came back to her. Well, she certainly had no interest in this game at all, now. Perhaps she should check on Ruby. 

Ruby had stepped to the side of the open doorway now and had a blank look on her face. Weiss reached out to put her hand on Ruby’s shoulder. That was enough to bring Ruby back to them with a confused blinking of her eyes. 

“Ruby?” She asked tentatively. 

“Uhhh, hey Weiss.” Ruby answered, her cheeks tinged pink. 

“Are you …alright? 

“Uh… Yup. Yep. I’m fine, I’m fine. I’m just gonna go and …lay down.” Ruby answered awkwardly before brushing past Weiss and hopping in bed. She could swear her face had gotten even redder at the end.

What a strange night. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Ruina returned to her dorm to find Yang sitting with the rest of her team. A long lecture later from Yang about consent and kissing her sister ensued. The alcohol made it feel like it took fooooreeeeever. Why was Yang  _ still  _ going on about this?

“And lastly… Next time you play Truth or Shots, you include me, got it?” Yang gave them a smile. 

“Uhh, yeah. Got it. Sorry Yang, and tell Ruby I’m sorry too, would you?” Ruina scratched the back of her head awkwardly. 

Nora echoed an apology of her own. 

“Sure sure. But you better apologize to her yourself, tomorrow, hangover or not.”

With that Yang left them in peace.

“Well that was kind of a buzzkill.” Nora said.

Ruina nodded her agreement. 

There was a knocking at their door, but before any of them could move to it they heard Yang call out through the door, “And drink some water!” 


End file.
